Black Rain Falls
by BarelyProdigies
Summary: Obito returns to Konoha just after the Third Great Ninja War and learns of Rin's death. 12 years later, he and Kakashi take on Shisui and Itachi as students while Jiraiya adopts a lonely Naruto. As childhood friends and rivals, Naruto and the two Uchiha form a team- Black Rain- that will hold the fate of the world in its hands. Grey Naruto. NarutoxShizune
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, what's up guys, it's BarelyGhost here bringing you my very first big, feature-length project. I'm proud of the originality and quality of the content I plan to bring you so hopefully you guys will like it too.**

**I'd like to address reviewing. If you don't review, please just do. It helps me a lot as a writer to have as much feedback as possible, even if it's negative. The more opinions I hear, the more pleasing the product will be for you. **

**Speaking of negative reviews, flamers are totally accepted, but don't be surprised or angry if I make you look stupid!**

**Naruto will not be totally OP in this fic, which I'm sure is a refreshing change of pace for a lot of you. Naruto will develop his skills over time in a realistic fashion; however, he will be stronger than in canon and have some cool, unique jutsu. **

**Also, I plan to develop my characters realistically. Their personalities will be shaped by their experiences. This won't be, "Oh, one day Naruto's a cold-blooded emotionless killer, but after one conversation with Kakashi he's a changed man! Makes sense right?" That stuff's total bullshit. People don't have a change of heart that fast. **

**Chapter 1**

**Return**

The entire village of Konoha was celebrating as the 3rd Great Ninja War had finally come to a close as cease-fire agreements had been signed by all countries and the soldiers had returned home. Everywhere one turned he could see smiling faces and tear-filled reunions as families welcomed their loved ones back home.

However, underneath the surface laid the harsh realization of the truth- many of the young men and women who had been sent away had returned in bodybags. Then there were the ones who hadn't returned at all- their loved ones trapped in a perpetual limbo of uncertainty, who could only pray to Kami that their child was, in fact, dead, and not suffering some even more horrid fate at the hands of the enemy.

Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara belonged not only to the former, but also the latter- they were certainly dead, but they would never have the true honor of having their bodies physically buried.

However, such formalities were the last things on the mind of the young man who stood at the memorial stone to which their names were recently added. The point is that his teammates- his only true friends- were now gone forever. And he had killed them both.

After hours of sullenly gazing at the huge stone, Kakashi Hatake felt a gentle hand on his soldier. The 15 year old jounin turned to see his sensei and the newly-minted Hokage, Minato Namikaze, giving him a gentle smile. This was exactly who he needed to see right now- his teacher, the man who had been a father figure to him ever since his own father, Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of the Leaf, had committed suicide. Seeing Minato instantly picked up his mood, however slightly, at least for the time being.

"Hello Kakashi," said Minato softly. The hero of the war proudly wore his fresh new kage robes and hat, and underneath the standard green jounin flak jacket along with normal blue pants. The light danced in his stunning blue eyes and his bright, spiky yellow hair waved in the light breeze.

Kakashi took a respectful bow as he said sincerely, "Hello Minato-sensei. Congatulations on being chosen Hokage. You certainly deserve it."

"Quit being so formal. It makes me feel old," he said with a chuckle.

The jounin chuckled and replied, "Of course, Minato-sensei."

The two stood without speaking for quite a while. The songbirds chirped happily and the sun shone brightly and a light breeze blew. It was a beautiful day as nature was totally oblivious to the turmoil and darkness inside Kakashi's heart. However Minato was not. After a while the silence between the two was deafening and he spoke.

"You blame yourself."

"Of course I do. I killed them both. There's just no way around it. It's the plain truth."

"It's not your fault. It couldn't have been avoided. They made the decision as shinobi of Konoha to lay down their lives for the village, and so did you. They decided to put their loved ones ahead of themselves and died in the most honorable way possible- for their comrades. Obito sacrificed himself to save you and Rin, while Rin sacrificed herself to save the entire village."

"You're right, he did. And I couldn't even achieve his dying wish." At this a single, small tear fell from Kakashi's eye but he quickly wiped it away before Minato could notice.

"Do you think this is what Obito and Rin wanted? When they gave up their lives for you do you think they expected you to spend the rest of your life sulking and burdening yourself with guilt and regret? The best thing you can do to fulfill their wishes is be happy and follow your dreams- live the life that they would've wanted you to live."

Suddenly Kakashi was overwhelmed by emotion and turned around as the floodgates of his eyes opened wide and tears flowed freely on his young face. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE PAIN OF HAVING A FRIEND DIE FOR YOU THEN BREAKING HIS PROMISE BY KILLING YOUR OTHER FRIEND BY YOUR OWN HAND," he screamed in Minato's face.

With that Kakashi stormed away, first quickly walking, then running. Minato began to follow him but decided against it. _Dammit, I pushed him too hard. Only time can heal him. He needs space._ Minato took a few small steps toward the memorial stone, said a few words under his breath then slowly walked away and shunsined back to the village proper.

_Several Days Later_

"But how do we know he's telling the truth?"

"I'm a Konoha shinobi who was willing to lay down his life for his comrades. I nearly died and I did suffer immense torture at the hands at the enemy. And now you're questioning my honesty? Are you calling me a traitor of Konoha Danzo-sama?"

No reply came. Silence pervaded the council room as the leaders of the village all had their eyes firmly set on the young man standing in front of them. He had only hours ago been found by a patrol team in the forests near the village in almost critical condtion. He was immediately brought to the medical team and his recovery was shockingly fast, almost miraculous, and now here he stood before the council in near perfect condition, other than the scarring on the right side of his face. All the members sat in wonder, confusion and disbelief as they looked at the 15 year old boy who claimed to be Obito Uchiha.

"So let me get this straight," began Minato. "You somehow survived the rock slide from which Kakashi and Rin presumed you had died. In your half-dead unconscious state you were easily captured by a group of Iwa shinobi and brought back there for solely for interrogation purposes?"

"Not solely for that, although I was indeed tortured for information. After refusing to give any up, I was put under an incredibly intense training program. They began to shape me into a weapon meant for the destruction of Konoha. For what seemed like years I was stuck there until one day as Konoha was nearing victory in the war, the base was abandoned and set on fire. They must have meant to kill me but all that training they gave me backfired as I was able to escape. It was a terrible plan from the start. You might even say they were….dumb as rocks."

Obito eagerly searched the room for any positive response to the pun he had been planning to say for the entire trip back. However all he saw was awkward silence as everyone in the room sweatdropped and his old sensei smacking his forehead. _Yep, this is definitely Obito, _Minato thought tiredly.

"Well," stated the Hokage, trying to recover from the awkwardness as Obito blushed heavily and immediately looked down at his feet, "I think since we've all heard his story now we can reach a vote on whether or not he can be trusted and accepted back into the village. His cells are exactly identical to the records we have of Obito's except some foreign ones but this has been explained as he has said that he was the subject of lots of experimentation. He is most definitely the Obito that I taught for many years. That's my two cents, now let's vote."

"All in favor of allowing him to stay?" All hands in the room shot up immediately except for that of two random civilian council members and Danzo Shimura, but even the old War Hawk slowly raised his hand.

"It's settled then. Welcome back Obito."

Applause rang out as everyone filed out after they talked to Obito for a bit. Soon everyone had left the room and Minato and Obito were alone.

"Minato-sensei…I'm so happy to see you."

"We were all so worried. I don't even know what to say to be perfectly honest. Just know that we all love you and are incredibly glad to see you safe and back home," said Minato as he flashed a bright smile. "You need to go see Kakashi immediately. He'll be beyond overjoyed to see you."

"I'll go find him right away!" And with that he ran as fast as he could out of the office.

Minato walked to the office window and looked thoughtfully out at his village.

_Kakashi will have to tell him…_

Kakashi was standing in front of the memorial stone as nearly always when he suddenly heard a very familiar voice from right behind him.

"What's up, teme? You've changed a lot."

Kakashi turned around filled with pure shock as he immediately recognized the best friend who he thought was dead forever.

Yet here he was, standing in the flesh.

Kakashi was shocked. Frozen. He couldn't move. After all this time the best friend who had haunted him now appeared in front of him out of the blue.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, taichou."

"I think I'm looking at one right now…"

They were silent for what seemed to both like ages.

"Where have you been…what happened?" Kakashi still didn't really know what was going on. He was overwhelmed with emotion, mostly disbelief.

"I'll be happy to tell you but I want Rin to be here too. Where is she?"

Kakashi was moved to tears. They fell one by one until soon he seemed to be drowning in them. His throat choked up and he couldn't form words.

"What's wrong, Kakashi? Use your words, now," he said teasingly, but in a hesitant way.

After a while Kakashi was able to speak.

He looked Obito straight in the eyes as he weakly told him the horrible truth-

"Rin is dead…**and I killed her…"**

**Ok first of all I love shitty puns more than anything so I'm going to be including them as much as possible haha. **

**This was just an emotional expositional chapter. The next one will introduce us to the time of the meat of the story.**

**Rate and review. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Foundations**

_12 Years Later_

The loud chirp of an alarm clock pierced the air of an apartment and startled a young boy awake. The dark circles under his eyes showed that he hadn't had much sleep the night before, and the huge smile on his face proved that the lack of sleep was due to his immense excitement. He quickly jumped out of bed, nearly tripping over a pile of clothes that by the look and smell hadn't been washed in weeks, if not months. Before rushing to the kitchen he grabbed his usual wardrobe- a mostly white jacket with orange flames on the cuffs, black pants also with orange flames, and white ninja sandals.

_Good thing I saved my special ramen for breakfast today!_ He thought excitedly as he hurriedly opened the pantry and grabbed it. As he savored the delicious flavor the 9 year old thought about all that would happen that day._ This is gonna be so great, I'll show everyone in my class who's the best in our group once and for all! After all, if I'm losing to them, how will I ever become Hokage?"_

Realizing he should probably arrive early, Naruto Uzumaki left his home to begin his first day at the Ninja Academy.

As he walked down the street, Naruto noticed all the usual people giving him bright smiles and friendly hellos and returned them kindly.

As he passed by Ichiraku Ramen, Teuchi called, "Hey Naruto, what are you doing up so early?"

"I'm headed to the academy for my first day! I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage!" came the excited response.

"Good luck, but you won't need it! Haha!"

Naruto smiled cheerfully and continued on, energized by the support but not at all surprised. Teuchi had always shown him compassion, and he never knew why. Probably because he was an orphan and he visited the shop so much. But Naruto could only guess.

Naruto always secretly wondered why he had never been adopted. A loving family to replace his parents and be the protective, caring role models he needed. Perhaps then he wouldn't have ended up being known as such a troublemaker. This saddened him sometimes, but the 3rd Hokage, who was a grandfather figure in his life, told him he had reasons for disallowing this, and Naruto trusted the old man.

He also said he would learn more about his parents when he was older, and all he needed to know now is that both his parents were great ninja who gave their lives for Konoha. Because of this Naruto's wish of becoming Hokage emerged- he wanted more than anything to continue the will of his parents- to protect the village that was his home and that accepted and loved him.

Unfortunately what the aspiring ninja didn't have were real friends. The isolation of living on his own took away any chance of being social, as kids his age only really had friends within their own clan for the most part. But the compassion of the villagers, especially ones like Teuchi, helped him along. And now that he was starting at the Academy, he was sure he would make lots of friends.

Now he was approaching the building, and he walked calmly into the room where he would be studying for the next years. He casually surveyed the classroom which was already nearly full. He didn't recognize anyone specifically, but he spotted an empty seat beside two boys he recognized as belonging to the Uchiha clan. All the time he had spent wishing for adoption had led him to study deeply a lot of the major clans of the village. _Man it sure would be cool to make friends with some Uchiha. They're the most powerful clan in the village!_

The two boys, although obviously still very young, had an air of superiority about them. It wasn't that they were self-righteous and thought that they were better than everyone else- it was more like they really werebetter and everyone knew it. They seemed very proper, respectful and well-mannered. They gazed out at the room and talked amongst themselves as everyone else shot them the occasional look to scope out the hardest competiton. Nobody dared to sit next to them out of fear and a sort of unspoken respect. But Naruto had never been one to pick up on such subtle things. Besides, to him, he himself was the toughest competition, so why fear anyone else?

Naruto's excitement was certainly there, but he had always been good at hiding his emotions. He sat down next to the two and decided to politely introduce himself.

"Oi! Uchiha bitches! I'm Uzumaki Naruto the next Hokage, so blow these fireballs if you had the same plans."

Everyone in the classroom jaws dropped while thinking the same thing: _He is so dead._

One of the boys to which he spoke nodded absent-mindedly and said, "I'm Itachi Uchiha and this is my cousin Shisui. Thank you, and the pleasure is all ours."

The exchange was very formal and proper, but this was how the boys had been raised. With strangers they were polite and distant. Only with friends could they really let loose.

Shisui leaned over, "I've never heard of the Uzumaki clan. Are you new in the village?"

"Well, it's complicated…"

"CLASS IS NOW IN SESSION EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!"

One student murmured, "Damn looks like we got a hardass..."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU JUST CALLED ME BUT FROM HERE ON OUT I'M IRUKA SENSEI TO YOU DISRESPECTFUL BRATS!"

"Iruka sensei?!" screamed Naruto. "More like Iruka sens-GAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!"

The entire class burst into uncontrollable laughter. Naruto glanced over at his new acquaintances and they looked like they could barely hold back their laughter.

_I got them to laugh,_ he thought while flashing a cocky grin, _I am so in with these guys._

And Naruto had a feeling that a beautiful friendship was beginning…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, one of the legendary Sannin, and the author of none other than the legendary Make Out Series, had finally returned to Konoha from a years-long trip spent installing a spy network all over the elemental nations. His mission had been a total success, so he was eager to finally come home and report. But what he was really eager to do was fulfill a promise that he hadn't been able to fulfill.

The first place he went when he arrived was the Hokage's office to report in. He jumped through the open window, in his usual way, and saw the old man sitting at his desk, smoking his pipe while filing through endless piles of paperwork.

"Sensei! It's been so long!"

The old man immediately recognized the voice and excitedly looked up. "Jiraiya! You're back! It's so good to see you," as he got up to greet his old student. "Damn, you look like hell," he joked.

"Yeah, well, you look just as spry as when you were 80, old man," came the return.

Hiruzen simply chuckled then returned to his seat then turned serious. "Well, Jiraiya, report on the result of your mission."

"It was a total success. Konoha now has by far the most extensive and efficient spy network in the ninja world. An exhaustive list of names, locations, and other information concerning all our spies is in this file," declared Jiraiya proudly with a wide grin as he handed over a thick stack of papers.

"Very, very well done. I'm very proud. I knew I could count on you," responded Hiruzen with a bright smile. "You've more than earned a break."

"Thank you very much, sensei, but I have a request to make as well."

"Very well, go ahead."

"I'd like you to let me stay in the village and raise and train Naruto."

The old man's immediate response was no.

"As much as I respect your care for family and your respect for Minato's promise, I simply cannot allow my best ninja to stop taking missions and leave the village with our only jinchurikii."

"You misunderstand. I have no intention not to take the occasional mission to check on the network, I'll still always protect the village, and I certainly won't be taking the boy away from his home. I intend to live in the village and have him stay with me. To have the boy grow up as a strong shinobi who can control his bijuu is what's best for the village. I will teach him jutsu and when he's old enough help him learn to use his bijuu's power."

Hiruzen slowly nodded but hesitated. "Ok…but why now? Why not further along in the future?"

"The seal that Minato placed to hold back the Kyuubi was not meant to last forever. It's around this time that the seal will be weakening, allowing the Kyuubi to gain more control over Naruto. I need to take him as my apprentice and redo the seal," Jiraiya stated seriously.

Hiruzen got up and looked thoughtfully out the window of the office for a few minutes. Finally he spoke. "I'll need confirmation that the seal is, has in fact, weakened."

He turned around and puffed his piped then said slyly, "And I have just the way to find out…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Later at the Academy Training Ground_

"DAAAAMMMNNNN that was boring as hell! Finally we get to prove ourselves as real ninja, not as stupid scientists."

Iruka gave the rebellious boy a short look but did nothing more.

"Naruto, what the hell happened when Iruka took you out to the hallway after the incident earlier?" asked Itachi in a hushed voice. Shisui leaned in as he was also very curious.

Naruto just smirked and said, "He just told me he respected me for having big balls, especially after that huge show of hard-assery he put on. He said that if I had the balls to do something like that then he respected me enough to let me say whatever I like."

The Uchiha boys just stood in shock. Neither of them had ever even considered questioning authority, much less openly mocking it, and yet here was a boy who did so shamelessly and was rewarded for it? They couldn't believe it. They had never heard of such anti-justice.

Iruka began to speak. "Since you all are a fresh batch of academy students, two very highly esteemed guests will be here to watch your very first spars- Hokage-sama and the Toad Sennin, Jiraiya-sama!"

The two legendary shinobi returned the awed looks of the children with bright smiles. "Damn," Jiraiya muttered to the 3rd through his teeth, "I haven't been this popular with a group since my last book signing."

Sarutobi chuckled then turned deathly serious as he turned and faced Jiraiya as he said a little louder than he meant, "**You still haven't signed my copies**," and he leaked a little KI.

Quite a while had passed before he realized that everyone was looking at him with a puzzled look on their faces. Only Iruka was mature enough to understand and had therefore sweatdropped massively. The scene as a whole had gotten really awkward really quickly.

It was silent for way too long as nobody really knew what to say.

It had totally slipped everyone's minds what they were doing there.

Silence.

More silence.

Finally someone spoke up.

"ARE WE GONNA SPAR OR WHAT YOU BUNCH OF GEEZERS!"

All the adults suddenly began aggressively nodding and muttering random excuses under their breath as they remembered why they were all there.

Soon Iruka had regained his composure and began announcing the first spars.

"I hope Naruto gets called soon. I didn't drop everything in my spy network to come and watch totally random kids fight for 2 hours," said Jiraiya to Hiruzen as two such kids had started off the fighting.

"I agree. The two Uchiha boys are nearly as interesting, though. They both possess immense potential."

"I'm sure. I've heard they have once-in-a-generation talent. Then again it seems like these every generation has one of those am I right?" scoffed Jiraiya.

Hiruzen gave him a perplexed look which went unnoticed by Jiraiya and decided not to ask him anything more.

Right then the match which had been going on ended with a stretcher, bloody screams and giant craters scarring the battlefield as one boy walked away and the other one got carried away with a small cut on his finger.

Iruka declared the winner and stated the next match. "Itachi Uchiha vs Totali Rando. Take your places."

Totali ran to his place as fast as he could. The cockiness and arrogance was practically oozing out of him. "I'm gonna destroy you, stupid Uchiha. Everyone knows your clan sucks anyway," and stuck his tongue out at Itachi then smirked at his classmates.

There was no response. Just a cold-blooded, emotionless stare.

"You suck, Itachi."

Nothing.

"You…uhhhh….i bet you uhhh…are bad at stuff."

Perfect emptiness.

"Wow this kid is scary as shit." He huffed under his breath.

"3, 2, 1, begin the match!"

Itachi simply made two hand seals and walked off.

Totali didn't want to move. No, it was more like he couldn't move. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He was totally frozen and blacked out. He was stuck in this state for hours until he woke up in his bed at home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_At Totali Home Hours Later_

"Itachi put you under a fearsome genjustu. You lost your fight before it even started," his mother told him while bringing him a bowl of Waffle Crisps.

_A part of every growing ninja's breakfast!_ His mother thought with a smile.

Totali just groaned into his bowl and reconsidered if being a ninja was really for him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Itachi wins!"

All the spectators were in total shock. Itachi had won his match without even throwing a punch. How had he put his opponent under a genjutsu like that so quickly and with only two handsigns? The child was certainly a prodigy.

Jiraiya leaned over to his sensei, "You were certainly right. That boy is very, very special."

Hiruzen simply gave a firm nod.

"Next match, Shisui Uchiha vs Naruto Uzumaki!"

_This, unfortunately, won't be interesting at all, _thought Iruka sadly. _Naruto has had nobody to train him, he's only trained himself, and Kami knows where that's gotten him. Meanwhile, Shisui has probably received clan training since he could walk._

"Naruto," began the young Uchiha, "although we are new friends, I won't hold back."

Naruto tried to hide his smile. Shisui had just called him his friend. It had been just a few hours and he was already friends with the coolest kids in his class! He was ecstatic.

Itachi gave Shisui a knowing smirk as he remembered the exchange from a bit ago.

(Flashback: 15 minutes ago)

_On the way to the training ground, Naruto got Itachi and Shisui's attention. "Look, if one of you matches up against me, I don't want you to hold back, no matter what. I know you've already had years of clan training and you could both destroy me in a second, but if I don't go against the best then how will I ever become Hokage?"_

_As he walked off, Shisui looked at his cousin. "Even though he has nobody to train him and is all alone, he treats his dream of being Hokage more as a goal than a dream. He's the type of person that can make anyone believe in him."_

(Flashback end)

"3, 2, 1, begin the match!"

Shisui immediately rushed at his new friend. With no hesitation roundhouse kicks and right hooks started flying, and Naruto was at the receiving end of every single one. It was a slaughter from the very start. It made Iruka nervous but he decided it was too soon to call the match.

Shisui nearly stopped when he saw Naruto was seriously injured already, but Naruto gave him an angry look and he remembered Naruto's wish so he continued.

Shisui shot a hard punch to the gut which caused Naruto to keel over and cough out blood. It was followed with a leg sweep which knocked him on his ass. He then regretfully but without hesitation began to kick the boy while he was down.

Naruto continued to receive the beating. He was in immense pain but he just couldn't give up. Suddenly he felt an overwhelming feeling of hatred and anger welling up in him. An incredible power surged through him. He didn't know where it came from, but he had never been so mad. As it came down for another strike he forcefully grabbed Shisui's leg.

Anyone who was cheering, talking, or doing anything at all immediately stopped and stared. What happened? One second Naruto was getting beat senselessly, so badly that his face was swollen to the point where you couldn't see his eyes, and now he had grabbed Shisui's legs, whose eyes were as big as dinner plates!

Riding this surge of power, Naruto got up, still holding tightly to the stunned young Uchiha's leg, spun around very quickly several times and threw him with shocking power against the nearest wall, so hard that it left huge cracks in the wall. Shisui was in bad shape.

Naruto nearly followed it up with a devastating punch to the face, but right as he was approaching his helpless opponent, Iruka stepped in.

"It's over, it's over! Stop!" Instantly, Naruto's anger evaporated and he calmed down. But not before Shisui hazily looked into his eyes- and they weren't his normal bright blue ones. They flashed a dark red with a slit in the middle.

They were the eyes of a demon.

"The winner is, Naruto," declared a still-shocked Iruka.

As Shisui was receiving medical treatment, Naruto looked confused then decided to just casually walk back to a spot on the sidelines next to Itachi, totally oblivious to the fact that everyone watching the fight was still staring at him with their mouths agape.

Only the two knew what just happened, Jiraiya simply looked over to his sensei and gave a knowing smile.

"Very well, Jiraiya, you were right. You are free to train and take care of the boy. You can even adopt him if he agrees."

Jiraiya was ecstatic. He could finally keep his promise and take care of his godson.

"Naruto…what was that power back there that you used? It totally changed the tide of the fight…you immediately crushed Shisui," said Itachi in a low voice, as if exchanging a secret.

"I have no idea. All I know is that one minute Shisui was beating me senseless and then next thing I knew the fight was over. It was all kind of a blur."

While the teacher was totally clueless as to what had really happened, there was one thing that Iruka noticed that nobody else did. The very serious wounds that Naruto had suffered during the fight were now completely healed. It seemed as if he didn't have a scratch on his body.

The boy was special. The boy was different. The boy was a mystery.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After their first day at the Academy was done, Naruto decided to walk his two new friends home. "Clearly you two ladies need some protection, especially after the ass-whooping I gave one of you," said the blonde as Itachi laughed heartily and Shisui jokingly pouted and looked down in shame.

"You really, really surprised me man. I mean you must be doing some kind of special training since you didn't get totally knocked out the way I was beating on you," retorted Shisui.

"Naaahhhh I was just going easy. Letting you gain your confidence, you know. I didn't want to totally demoralize you. I think you might become a half-decent ninja one day."

All three chuckled at this last one and they continued on in silence. Soon they reached the Uchiha compound.

"Well Naruto, this is our stop. Would you like to come in? My mother should be making dinner right about now," offered Itachi politely.

"No no I'm just fine, I've got plenty of good food at home." Naruto was lying and he knew it but he had never had a friend before and he didn't want to risk messing it up by intruding on their space.

"Ok, if you say so." Itachi nodded at Shisui.

"Oh, right. Naruto we were wondering if you wanted to begin training with Itachi and I. We know you don't really have anyone to train with so you could certainly join us if you'd like."

Naruto had no words. He was overwhelmed by the friendship that these two were showing him. He had never been invited to anything by anyone, and certainly not clan training. He had only met them today and they had already accepted him into their own private training. He was about to express the most sincere yes and thank you of his life before he was harshly interrupted.

"Actually…" said a mysterious voice out of nowhere,

"…I'll be handling that!" And a giant puff of smoke covered the entire area…

**Ohhhh boy, who could it possibly be? Haha **

**Rate and review .**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Shadows**

**I'd like to address the review and a few PM's from people concerned that there is no conflict in the plot since Obito is good. While I appreciate your worry and feedback immensely, all I can say is have faith in the plot and the story I have planned. Hopefully this chapter will quell some of your anxieties.**

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"…I'll take care of that!"

An enormous puff of smoke totally enveloped the area and rendered the three young friends coughing and blind. Soon, however, it dissipated, and they were all awed by what they saw.

Above them towered a gigantic frog (or was it a toad? What was the difference again?) with a proportionate pipe to fit in its mouth and a blue cloak on its back. On top of its huge head stood a older-looking man with long white hair- the same one from earlier that day.

The two Uchiha gasped. "Jiraiya-sama!" They both bowed. Naruto, however, lacking such unpracticed pleasantries as "politeness" and "modesty", was content to stand straight up and watch.

The old man jumped off his summon and in front of the boys. "Hello, you three. Congratulations on your performances earlier today, you were all easily the most impressive in your class."

"Thank you, Jiraiya-sama."

"Yeah ok. What were you saying just now, old man?"

"Oh, yes. If you would please, Itachi and Shisui, I must speak to Naruto alone."

"Yes, of course. Good-bye, Naruto-kun. See you tomorrow."

"Ok guys, catch you later."

After they had entered the compound, the blonde spoke first. "What do you want anyway old man?"

"First of all, that is no way to speak to someone as powerful and esteemed as me. Don't you have any respect?"

Naruto looked down at his feet and mumbled, "Yeah, well, I never really had anyone to teach me it."

"Right, which is why I'm here."

Naruto quickly looked the man in the eye. "WHAT? What do you mean!?"

Jiraiya responded with a chuckle, "Just come with me to the Hokage tower. Once we get there the old man and I will explain everything."

"Hey, how come you get to call him that?"

"Because I'm not a snot-nosed little brat like you!"

As he watched Naruto pout, Jiraiya let out a hearty chuckle. _He's exactly like I was._

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Night had fallen and 3 figures were present in the Hokage's office. Two were seated while one stood looking out the window, clearly overwhelmed with all the information that had just been shared with him.

"So let me get this straight one more time." Both older men quietly sighed. Although they understood that this was all quite confusing and heavy, this had been the fifth time they'd gone over it. Naruto was not stupid, but nobody had ever called him the sharpest kunai in the armory either.

"You were my tou-san's sensei, and he made you my godson. So now, 9 years later, you're finally stepping up to your responsibility? Why now?"

"I just finished my mission of setting up a spy network all across the ninja world. Now that that's complete, I asked the old man here to allow me to stay in the village and honor your father's request by raising you, and he agreed."

Naruto was silent again.

After a few minutes of contemplation he spoke up. "If my tou-san trusted you this much then I will too."

A huge grin instantly appeared on Jiraiya's face. He was about to say something but he was interrupted.

"But…"

The grin quickly disappeared.

"…I won't call you Jiraiya-sama," the boy said as a sizeable grin appeared on his face too.

The smile was quickly back again. "Call me whatever you want, kid." The Toad Sage was a wonderful mix between ecstatic and relieved. Hiruzen had a small smile on his face as well. The atmosphere of the room was wonderful.

Jiraiya was surprised as the boy ran up and hugged him with tears falling from his eyes. Finally he would have someone to take care of him, to look after him, to love him. All those lonely years had passed but now he had finally had his wish granted. "Thanks…tou-san."

The toad sage felt tears welling up in his eyes as he knelt down and returned the embrace. "You don't have to thank me, kid. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time." He looked over at Hiruzen and even he was getting emotional, as he didn't miss when the old man had turned around to try to hide as he wiped his wet eyes on his sleeve. His surrogate grandson finally had a home, and it was his beloved student who had taken him in. He couldn't have dreamed of a better situation.

"Alright Naruto, it's getting pretty late. We'll stop by your place so we can get your things and move you into my place."

"Your place?"

"That's right, now that I'll be living here I purchased a little place on the river. I think you'll like it a lot."

Naruto's face lit up. He could finally get out of that stuffy apartment! It was small and smelly (although that probably wasn't the building's fault) and he hated it. He couldn't wait to get there.

"Ok bye, Hokage-jiji!"

"Good bye, Naruto. Jiraiya will take great care of you. Right?" and shot his old student a serious look.

The younger old man responded just as seriously. "On my life, or my name isn't Jiraiya, the great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, and author of the extraordinarily loved and popular Make Out series!"

Hiruzen audibly sighed. "Very well then."

"Hey Naruto, would you stand outside and let me talk to the old man really quick?"

The boy eagerly nodded and stepped out.

"Well Jiraiya, we've told him half the story. It's a good start."

"I plan to tell him about the fox later. I just hope it doesn't start trying to contact him first."

Hiruzen took a long puff from his pipe. "Well, I trust your judgement. You'll know when the boy is ready."

There was a pause, probably for dramatic purposes.

"Thank you for this Jiraiya. Watching the boy be so lonely all this time and being helpless to do anything about it was hurting me more every day."

"I'm glad to, sensei. It's the least I can do for Minato."

"Well good luck. That boy isn't exactly known for his…um…good behavior."

"Wait, wait, wait. What?"

"Hm? Never mind."

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The blonde boy's mouth was agape. He was stunned, shocked, speechless. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Something wrong, kid?" said the sage with a knowing grin.

"It's HUGE!"

The house was a mansion, complete with Greek-style pillars in the front, floor-to-ceiling windows in most rooms and an enormous spiral staircase in the foyer, complete with a beautiful glass chandelier.

Any normal person would have been impressed. But Naruto was absolutely blown away. He had never bothered to venture into the wealthier part of town, so to him this was a totally foreign sight. He had never experienced such luxury.

"I thought you said it was little! And how did you afford all this?"

"I thought I'd surprise you," came the answer along with a cheesy grin. "And as far as the money, well going on a mission that difficult for that long doesn't exactly come cheap," he scoffed. "And all those A and S rank missions I performed prior to that didn't exactly hurt."

"Well damn," was all the boy could say.

"Glad you like it. Your room is up the stairs and to the right at the end of the hall."

Jiraiya simply waited and 20 seconds later he got what he was waiting for, to his great pleasure: "WHOA! This is so cool!"

Naruto ran back downstairs. He immediately hugged his new dad again. "Thanks so much tousan. Do you mind if I call you that?"

Jiraiya got emotional again and choked back tears. "Of course, kid. Of course."

_Minato…I hope you're watching. I'll protect your legacy with my life._

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Jiraiya awoke unpleasantly to a violent Naruto beating him mercilessly.

"WAKE UP OLD MAN COME ON! WAKE UP WAKE UP!"

"What kid?! What? Is there an intruder? Are we being attacked?"

Naruto laughed. "No of course not. It's time for you to train me."

Jiraiya looked at the clock by his bed. It was 5:30 am.

"Kid are you insane?! Why now? It's way too early!"

"Well I have school."

"Why not just in the afternoon?"

"Well uh…I was really excited ok? Just train me already. You're some really famous and powerful ninja right? Well give me a shot!"

Jiraiya sighed. He never imagined adopting a kid would be so complicated and hard.

"Ok Naruto, just this once. I had planned on training you for sure, but we'll have to work out a better schedule for this."

The boy was beyond giddy. "Yes! Alright well let's go!"

He dragged his new dad from bed and they went outside by the river.

"Alright tousan. Are you gonna teach me some cool ninjutsu? Some kind of ultimate technique?"

Naruto frowned when the old man burst into laughter.

"You're not even approaching readiness for ninjutsu. You need to get in physical shape and get your taijutsu down. Take a run up and down the river bank until I tell you to stop or you can't run anymore."

"Awwww come on! That's so lame! I want to do cool stuff!"

"All great ninja started out with conditioning and taijutsu. If you don't work on these to start with you can't possibly do more complex jutsu. Don't you want to be Hokage?"

"Yeah, more than anything! It's my dream- no, goal!"

"Well, trust me, if it's your dream then it's mine too. Just listen to me and believe me, you'll be Hokage before you know it," he said with a smile.

Naruto immediately perked up and got a serious look on his face which surprised Jiraiya. "Well then I'll do whatever you say! I trust you tousan!"

Jiraiya's face now wore a proud smile. "Alright well get going."

Naruto immediately set off at a breakneck pace down the river bank.

As he ran his mind wandered to the dream he had had the night before, the real reason he had woken up so early.

Although it wasn't a dream, so much as the most horrifying nightmare he'd ever had. And he remembered every single detail.

_The blonde boy stood in what seemed to be a giant sewage drain, with water at his feet. In front of him was what seemed like a giant cell, with red prison bars and a strange looking circle in the middle._

_Suddenly there was a great tremor and two giant eyes with red slits in them opened in front of Naruto. The enormous beast to which they belonged bared its teeth before it spoke. Naruto had never been half this frightened._

"_**Why, hello Naruto-kun. I've been waiting so long for this opportunity."**_

"_What are you talking about? Who or what are you? Where are we? I'm scared…"_

"_**Well that makes sense, considering you're talking to the most powerful entity in existence!" **__and with this the awesome beast let out an unbearably loud and terrifying roar._

_Naruto gasped as the beast came into better view. He couldn't breathe. "You're…"_

"_**Yes, the Kyuubi! And as for where we are…" **__the beast gestured toward Naruto's stomach with a long horrid finger. Naruto instinctively lifted up his shirt and saw the seal on his stomach visible and glowing._

"_**Right inside you."**_

_Naruto took a brief second to realize the gravity of what that truly meant before he began to scream from fear and grief. He bolted awake in a cold, fearful sweat._

The boy wondered if he should tell his new tousan. He supposed that it was a good idea, since he could trust him and it might have greater implications. He was very certain that the Kyuubi was not actually inside him, as…wait.

His father died sealing the Kyuubi on October 9, the day that happened to be the very same day that he was born, and many of the villagers openly hated him for reasons he was always totally unaware of…

Naruto stopped running immediately. He collapsed on his knees and broke down into a waterfall of tears. Jiraiya noticed this and got extremely worried. He ran over as fast as he could and began to try to comfort the boy.

"Naruto, what's wrong? Naruto!"

The blonde tried to form words but couldn't, he was so overwhelmed by tears and emotion. Realizing this Jiraiya settled for simply holding the boy until he could get his bearings. It took an inordinate amount of time for him to be able to say something but eventually he spoke up.

"I know…"

Jiraiya's face immediately darkened and turned stone-like. He was absolutely certain what the boy was referring to having knowledge of but he hoped against hope that it wasn't the case.

He gulped before he weakly asked the question. "What do you know Naruto?"

"**I know the Kyuubi is sealed inside me…"**

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Life for Kakashi after Obito's return had been contrary to his initial expectations in the most misfortunate way possible.

After learning of Rin's death, Obito began to bear an unbridled hatred toward Kakashi. He blamed him singularly for her death. He was immensely cold toward his old friend and literally never talked to him unless it concerned unavoidable ninja matters. Minato tried to bring them back together, and nearly made progress, but after his death the attempts to make amends dropped and the grief from that made matters for the two only worse. Every bridge Kakashi attempted to build was burned before the first plank of wood was even down.

The deaths of Rin and Minato and the manner of them seemed to have devastated the Uchiha. He isolated himself in almost every way from the village, making no friends and choosing to live outside the Uchiha compound and living by himself on another part of the outskirts of town, thereby neglecting his family and clan. Noboby had ever seen him participate in any kind of enjoyable social activity, period. All he ever seemed to do was perform missions and train.

Yes, this was the one way he wasn't isolated- militarily. Obito was a high-ranking Anbu, second only to Kakashi, the commander, but a very close second. However close he was, he had never shown any jealousy toward Kakashi or any ambition for the commander spot. In fact, he never showed any visible ambition for anything, but nobody seemed to care, and if they did, it would have been impossible for them to do anything.

This was due to the fact that Kakashi and Obito, despite the latter's unforgiving and unending coldness to the former, they teamed up in the field and had trained together since Obito's return. However, they were no ordinary team. The fact that their sharingans were identical and they had trained together for so long (other than the years of Obito's absence) meant their teamwork was unparalleled. It had never happened before that two high-ANBU level ninja had known each other since childhood and trained together. Such a team was the result of such immense fortuitousness. The bingo book of every ninja village who was at all up to date with anything even remotely approaching current events reflected their success. Both men were listed individually as high A rank ninja individually. However, a note followed both their profiles- _If seen with Kakashi Hatake/Obito Uchiha, high S rank team. Run on sight. _They were a legendary twosome.

Such ability in the field allowed Konoha to take on missions that earned a king's ransom, and that no other hidden village could successfully undertake. This stimulated the Konoha economy greatly. The village had never been so well off.

Obito certainly was not alright, but it wasn't as though Kakashi was exactly fine. The pain that he was going through was immense.

On top of not having yet come to peace with the death of his friends, for which he blamed himself, he now had Obito thrown back into his life, creating massive confusion. But it was the instant hatred that he earned from his resurrected friend that absolutely guaranteed his mental instability.

Had Obito stayed dead, he would probably eventually have forgiven himself with the help and support of his loved ones, surviving off the memories of Obito and Rin, which were all positive.

But now this stranger who he didn't even recognize had soiled that memory and replaced it with an ambition-less, empty soul who had nothing but hatred for him. To know that his old friend who had changed him so much as a person now hated him so completely that he would only talk to him about missions and training killed him inside. Kakashi distanced himself from friends and threw himself headlong into ANBU.

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_A Few Months Later_

It was a beautiful day outside as two figures were present inside the Hokage's office. One of course was Hiruzen. The other, standing across from the sitting Hokage, was a man with dark hair and, most notably, a single sharingan eye.

"Well, Obito? What would you like?"

"I would like to make a request, Hokage-sama."

"Well, due to your faithful and, quite frankly, unparalleled work along with Kakashi in ANBU for so many years, I'm willing at this point to grant you nearly anything within reason."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. My request actually concerns my partner as well."

"Oh?"

"I would like you to allow us each to take on a promising young academy student as an apprentice."

Hiruzen's eyes got wide with disbelief. He was shocked, to say the very, very least. An extremely successful veteran ANBU _requesting _to take on a young student, and asking on behalf of a man toward whom it was no secret he harbored hatred as well? Normally such a task would be a punishment. Requesting something like this was absolutely unheard of.

"Well to be honest, Obito, I'm surprised. Why are you requesting this?"

"To be honest, I am worried about my own mental health as well as that of Kakashi. In order for us both to continue to be effective ninja our states of mind cannot be in jeopardy. We must have clear heads. I sincerely believe that taking on these children will at least distract us from the traumatizing occurrences we experience so often in the field and keep us mentally stable. Obviously we would have to take missions less frequently but we would still be active duty."

There was a pause as Hiruzen thought deeply. He had indeed been very worried about these two great-grand-students of his, but the council had kept him from doing anything about it. But now they were doing it voluntarily, and they could still take on missions so Konoha's force would not take a huge hit. He was more than happy to sign off on it.

"I'm more than happy to grant this request."

"Thank you very much Hokage-sama," responded Obito evenly as he bowed deeply.

"Now two things. First, has Kakashi signed off on this yet?"

"Not yet, as I was hoping that you would persuade him. However I really believe he will accept this request."

"Very well then. Second, I would assume you have some students in mind."

"Yes, absolutely. We would take on Shisui and Itachi Uchiha, as I have heard many great things about them both and they both have the sharingan just like Kakashi and I. We will test their elemental affinities to see who is a more appropriate trainer for whom."

"I can see you've thought this through very well, and I can certainly attest to the excellence of those boys. To learn from such great ninja at such a young age would be an incredible experience for them both. I think this is a fabulous idea."

"Thank you very much Hokage-sama. I will be off now."

"Good luck, Obito."

And with that there was a swirl of leaves and one less figure was present in the Hokage tower.


	4. Chapter 4

**Discoveries**

Just to avoid any possible confusion I want to clear up the time skip. Just before Obito's request to Sarutobi, we skipped forward a few months. That time skip applied for everyone- in other words, at this point in the story, Naruto has been living and training with Jiraiya for those months.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon in Konoha and Naruto had just come back from the academy. As always, he was immediately ready and excited to start his afternoon training session.

"Ok, Naruto," began the toad sage, "come here."

"Alright tou-san, what do you got for me today? Whatever it is I'm ready."

"Well, Naruto, I think you're ready to learn something new. But first let's go back over what you know to this point."

"Alright, cool!" Every time Jiraiya said he would teach him something new he'd ended up being disappointed that it wasn't ninjutsu, but he held out faith that this time it was it.

"Good to see you're excited. I have a feeling you'll be excited for this." Jiraiya gave a knowing grin. "We spent the first 4 months of your training working exclusively on taijutsu and conditioning. You're now in good shape and you're very proficient at taijutsu for your age, thanks of course to the 3 sessions a day and the strongest will to never give up I've ever seen," he said with pride and ruffled the boy's hair.

_Then again, the shadow clone trick and the fact that his chakra is absolutely through the roof didn't exactly hurt. Those two facts together speed up his training exponentially, _the sage thought realistically.

"Then we spent the next month and a half working almost exclusively on chakra control. At this point, your chakra control is that of most special jounin, despite how atrocious it was to begin with," he said with a chuckle.

The boy gave a bright but humble smile. "So, what am I ready for, tou-san?" he asked with not-so-well-hidden excitement.

"Ninjutsu."

The boy immediately sprang into an over-the-top excited cheer and began to run wildly about as he yelled for a bit. This was the moment he had been waiting for for what seemed like so incredibly long. Ninjustsu was so incredibly cool! Now he could finally match up with Itachi and Shisui! Now if only he could also learn one other thing…

"Could I also learn genjutsu? You know how much it fascinated me, I mean I absolutely devoured every scroll on it in the Hokage's office."

"Because genjutsu is typically much harder to learn and perform and has less uses for you right now, even though you do have the chakra control necessary, we'll start with ninjutsu. But we will certainly be getting to it later. Clearly you have your father's genius for tactics, so I know you'll be able to do some very interesting things with it," he said with another proud smile. Naruto had certainly been a handful, but he was Jiraiya's pride and joy. He really loved the boy as his own son.

This made Naruto very, very excited. Ever since he had seen Itachi first perform the genjutsu on that boy during the spar on the first day of school, he had been very interested in the art.

"Awesome! But right now, ninjutsu. Ok, what are you going to teach me? Rasengan? Toad summoning? What?"

Jiraiya chuckled at the boy's eagerness. He was always so excited for the next thing. "No, no, no, not quite yet. First we need to start off with some elemental ninjutsu. Obviously, we'll start with the basics, but eventually, these elemental jutsu will be your best friend, believe me. I believe it won't be too long before you're performing some B rank elemental ninjutsu, especially with your chakra control. Do you see now how all those exercises that seemed so pointless to you at the time help so much?"

The boy nodded. All this had excited him very much. He absolutely couldn't wait to learn all the ninjutsu in the world.

Presently, his tousan pulled a small piece of paper out of his pocket and gave it to him.

Noticing the question about to come out of his adopted son's mouth, the sage spoke first. "That's chakra paper. All you have to do is put it into the palm of your hand and channel chakra into it and it'll reveal your affinity."

"Awesome!" He placed the paper in his hand and began channeling chakra.

Both watched the paper very expectantly. Their eyes were peeled.

Suddenly the paper was cut into pieces from several different angles, while simultaneously the paper got so drenched with water that instead of paper being left in the boy's hand there were only drops of water.

The blonde looked up to see Jiraiya's mouth wide open in shock and awe. He had never seen something even approaching this before.

"What is it tou-san? What did that mean?"

"Uhhh…ok…well…I'll tell you what normally happens. It seems like you have both a water and wind affinity. Having two affinities is rare enough. But what normally would happen in that case is that the paper would have simply one cut down the middle, not multiple cuts, and the paper would be a bit wet, not completely disintegrate into drops of water. I've never seen this before. It seems you have an extreme affinity for both water and wind. This doesn't mean that you are extremely weak with other jutsu elements, you're no weaker with them than anyone else with non-affinity elemental jutsu. It just means you take up a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the chakra that even someone with a normal affinity for an element uses, and you probably have some unique abilities with them. The only reason I know all of this is because of the example of Tobirama Senju, the 2nd Hokage, who had this same situation, but only with water. Having it with two is almost certainly unheard of."

The blonde was in awe of himself. He couldn't believe he had such great powers! "So, what does this mean more practically?"

"You remember how earlier I said it wouldn't be too terribly long before you were learning B rank justu? With this new development, you'll be learning A rank jutsu even sooner, and S rank jutsu at about that time."

Naruto's jaw hung open. He could hardly take this all in. Basically, he was a total badass beyond comprehension. The excitement he had to learn had before been immense, but now it had skyrocketed.

Naruto practically exploded. "Well then let's go, what are we waiting for! Teach me some stuff!"

"Well, see that's the problem…my affinities are fire and earth. I have nothing to teach you past some basic stuff, which is still where you'll start, don't get me wrong. And sure, you can always learn from scrolls, but only to a certain, very limited extent. I'll have to talk to the Hokage about getting you another sensei."

Naruto immediately looked downtrodden and began to pout a bit.

"Hey, it's ok, kid. We'll still have our morning and night sessions, your new sensei will just take up the afternoon one. Believe me, I still have _plenty _to teach you," he said with a smile.

This comforted Naruto and lifted his spirits. "As long as I still get to train with you tou-san," he said lovingly with a big smile.

"Of course, kiddo. I'll always be your sensei."

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Living with Jiraiya had obvious advantages for Naruto, but that didn't mean there weren't the occasional drawbacks.

This was exemplified one late night as Naruto slept peacefully in his bed. He awoke with a jolt as he felt a strong hand shake him awake.

"Oi Gaki, wake up, the great Jiraiya-sama has decided to impart some of his infinite wisdom to your short self."

"Hey! I'm 7 for Kami's sake Ero-Sennin! I'm supposed to be short!"

"Don't call me that brat!"

The boy rubbed his eyes and looked hazily over at the clock in his room. It read 2:30 a.m.

"Are you insane? Why are you waking me up at this hour?! And why do you smell so bad? Your breath and just you in general are unbearable."

"Forget that, just listen. How old are you now, 10? 11?"

"No, again, I'm 7."

"Well, same difference, point is, you've become a grown-ass man. Now I'm going to talk to you about something the mysteries of which has eluded even the greatest of men for centuries…"

"Is it a new jutsu Ero-Sennin?!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"NO…geez you'd think you would grow up by now."

"Whatever, well what is it Ero-Sennin," responded a just as curious if decidedly less excited blonde.

Jiraiya proceeded to take his legendary pose which was rather difficult due to the significant amount of sake he had consumed earlier that night. "Women! Ahhh yes, one moment they are as a gentle mother bird, caring for and loving you as she keeps you in her nest, but the next they're shoving you out of their apartment with all the ferocity of a Bengal tiger."

The boy frowned. "I'm going back to sleep." He turned over and pulled the sheets over his head.

"This is important information here! Don't you wanna get a girlfriend?"

"AGAIN. 7. A girlfriend is literally the last thing on my mind right now."

Jiriaya was almost dismayed, but he was not a sage for nothing. He quickly hatched an idea and grinned deviously. "Well tell me this, young Naruto. What would happen if you were out on a mission and you were required to extract information from an enemy kunoichi?"

He was very pleased but not surprised to see him turn around with wide eyes. "Whoa, I never thought about it like that!" he said as he now sat at the edge of the bed with notepad in hand.

_That was too easy, _thought the sage. "Exactly brat, now listen to the great Jiraiya-sama! Everything you need is in this book. The holy grail of information concerning everything about women is contained in not only this book but in this entire series penned by none other than me!" Jiraiya stated as he puffed out his chest and handed over a small stack of orange books titled Icha-Icha.

"Alright, Ero-Sennin I will study this cover to cover!"

"Good brat, now I must be off to tame the fiery, cunning women of the night!" the sage exclaimed as he stumbled ungracefully out of the nearest window with a perverted giggle.

"Ok, let's get started on this book!" said Naruto excitedly as he flipped open the first page, naïve like any young boy. "Maybe I'll just flip through first. Oh nice, there's pictures!"

His eyes immediately became wide as saucers. "OH MY KAMI-SAMA WHAT IS THAT!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs. "DAMN YOU ERO-SENNIN!"

He immediately jumped up and ran into the living room as fast as his little feet would carry him with the entire stack of books, started up the fireplace and as soon as possible threw them in, watching them smolder until there was nothing left of the monstrosities but embers.

"I am never going to ask tousan for advice on girls again," he muttered as he sauntered back to his room, shivering from the memories. Needless to say he didn't sleep well that night.

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4 figures stood in training ground 27, an out of the way spot. Two boys could be seen standing with small pieces of paper in their hands across from two men. One of the men, the dark-haired one, spoke after the papers had both been used.

"Well this is very convenient. It seems Shisui has primarily fire and secondarily earth affinity, which perfectly matches mine, so I will be taking him as my student."

Kakashi nodded in response to Obito's statement. "And Itachi has fire and lightning, which is perfect for me. I'll be able to teach him the chidori."

On seeing the boy's eyes visibly light up, the ANBU decided to amend his statement. "One day," he said with a chuckle, resulting in a mock pout from Itachi.

"Well, I suppose we'll be off then," said Obito, and with that he motioned for his new student to follow him and away they went.

Kakashi immediately turned to his disciple. "I suppose we should start with introductions. We'll both say our names, our likes and dislikes, and our greatest dream. I'll go first." He took a deep breath as he sat down on the grass and Itachi did the same. "I am Kakashi Hatake, I serve as the current ANBU commander. I like helping old ladies across the street and avoiding black cats. I hate people who would leave their friends behind or betray them. My dream is…well to be honest I'm not sure what it is." He gave an eye smile. "Your turn."

Itachi nodded and calmly and confidently answered. "I am Itachi Uchiha, son of Fugaku Uchiha, current head of the Konoha police force. I like my best friends, Shisui and Naruto, and my baby brother Sasuke and especially waffle crisps. These things are more precious to me than anything and I would do anything for them. I dislike people who are arrogant. And my dream is just to protect the precious things I mentioned just now."

Kakashi had a sad look on his face. _Sounds a lot like Obito. I wonder how long it'll take for him to turn out how he is now._

"Is something wrong, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hm? No, no, it's nothing. Come on, let's have a spar so I can gauge where you're at."

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"To protect those precious to you? That is your dream?"

"More of a goal, to be honest, but yes."

At this response, Obito looked thoughtfully about at the pair's surroundings, the open field, the trees nearby and the clear, blue lake. It was very beautiful, to be sure. Birds danced lightly and playfully. Flowers were in full bloom. Such was the nature of training ground 35. The irony of the scene was not lost on him. The epitome of the beauty and peace of nature, used for the sake of sharpening the tools of war, to bring on pain and death. It was a striking contrast. Tools. Tools. This was what stuck out to him. He knew the harsh reality of the shinobi world, that ninja were nothing more than tools, not people. He looked at the boy sitting in front of him; Shisui was sitting patiently and silently, and Obito realized he must have been silent for quite a bit. The boy was too young to have this dumped on him. He had to learn for himself.

"Very well. That's a respectable goal."

He looked at the boy more studiously. "You remind me of me when I was younger."

"Thank you very much, Obito-sensei."

"That wasn't necessarily a compliment." The man slowly got up. "Come on, let's spar."

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Life at the academy had changed drastically for Naruto since he started living and training with Jiraiya. He had, with alarming speed, vaulted to the top 3 in his class. Of course Itachi and Shisui still held the top two spots, but now their 3-way rivalry was legitimate. The rest of the class had nobody of any extraordinarily obvious potential, but the again, they were all 7 or 8 years old. All but those 3 still lacked the ability to mold chakra, but this was expected. After all, they had only begun attending a few months ago.

The only truly exciting spars that took place were between the three friends. Naruto always came close, but it was rather uncommon for him to win a spar against one of them. It was clear to everyone that he still had a ways to go to catch up to them, but it was just as clear that it wouldn't be long before that happened.

The red chakra that Naruto had used in the fight had been dismissed and entirely forgotten by all, even the teachers, who at the time could have sworn they vaguely recognized its evil taint. It spoke more to the nature of human memory than anything.

Humans are innately imitators, constantly being rubbed off on by others and rubbing off on those same people. This social phenomenon occurred very clearly in Naruto and his Uchiha friends. While he became slightly more calm, mature, patient, polite and respectful, Itachi and Shisui became more outgoing, open, emotional and willing to speak their minds. They helped each other to strike a happy medium of each extreme. In this case, opposites certainly did attract, and they grew closer every day.

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It was a typically beautiful morning as the blonde and his two dark-haired friends strolled toward the academy building. Anyone in the vicinity could see them laughing loudly and carrying on, enjoying one another's company. As the three approached the door, which had yet to be opened (punctuality was another trait which Naruto picked up), it was the same scene as usual. A mob of all the aspiring ninja in their class stood gazing at them intently as they came. The girls all shamelessly fawning over their every move- "Oh, Itachi is the handsomest, strongest ninja ever!" "No, my Shisui-kun is the greatest and you know it!" "Have you ever even talked to him?" "Well, I mean…"- and most of the boys scoffing and knowingly lying and claiming they were superior, while the rest merely looked on in silence and respect.

"Man, how come I never get any fan girls," Naruto pouted only half-jokingly.

Itachi chuckled as he stiff-armed a fan girl who had tried to kiss him, "Believe me, it's no fun. It's more a job than anything. I try to be nice but it's hard. I might have to try doing something mean but honestly, they worship my every move. I feel like no matter what I do they would come after me anyway." He sighed deeply. "I just wish they weren't all so desperate. A lot of them could become great kunoichi if they weren't…"

Right then he had looked over his shoulder to where Naruto had been only to find him gone. After realizing he had been talking to himself for Kami knows how long, and getting over the embarrasssment, he looked over to see him attempting to drag Shisui out from the clutches of a particularly rabid group of girls. Finally Naruto got him out and ran with him toward the finally-open academy doors. Itachi caught up inside.

"This is getting absolutely ridiculous." Shisui's shirt was shredded to threads, his pants luckily only had a few rips in them and he was missing a sandal. His face was completely covered in kiss marks and his arms had tons of fingernail scratch marks on them. "I'm beyond tired of this."

The other two couldn't help but laugh heartily at this sight, but they both had to admit that it was truly becoming a huge nuisance. The fan girls in their class were totally out of hand. It seemed as though the classes above them lacked that problem, which probably was due to the fact that the kunoichi became more serious, but at this point it seemed as though there was no hope.

"I really think you two need to move up a grade or something. In fact, not just because of the fan girls, but honestly you're both way above the level of anyone else here. Even I could probably move up," Naruto responded with total honesty.

"Our parents have already tried that, but the Sandaime put in a new rule that forbids skipping grades in the academy. As it is peace time there is no immediate need for more ninja, so an influx of more is unnecessary. The biggest reason for this is that there have been many promising young ninja who were moved up and were certainly physically and even mentally ready for battle and life as a ninja, but were too young to be emotionally ready. This led to them being driven crazy. It's unfortunate for us right now, but I understand his aim completely," stated Itachi learnedly.

Shisui nodded in agreement while Naruto did in understanding. "I see. Well, I guess you're just stuck with me then!" the blonde said with a big smile.

The two Uchiha grinned in return. "Guess so."

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**Rate and review.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Unhidden**

_4 years later_

Much had changed over the course of Naruto's academy years, yet much had stayed the same.

To begin with the changes, Jiraiya had found another sensei perfect for the boy- the special jonin Hayate Gekko. In addition to sharing his affinities, the man could teach his student kenjutsu, which Jiraiya liked as it connected him to his Uzumaki roots and Naruto liked it because he found it incredibly cool. However, he was not the only one who was learning from Hayate.

Jiraiya and Sarutobi had thought it a great idea, since he could not move Naruto, Shisui and Itachi up in grade level, that they should train together in preparation for being genin. It had been decided very quickly that they would be in the same genin team. They were all great friends who were around the same skill level; it would be criminal not to place them together. Such preparation in advance, a chance to have so much time to grow closer and work on their teamwork, was unparalleled and would not go to waste. Therefore, it was decided that Hayate would serve as a jonin sensei for all of them and train them as a unit in the afternoon. They all became highly skilled in kenjutsu and as a unit.

As an individual, Naruto was now 12, nearly 13. He had a notable number of both wind and water style ninjutsu (including the rasengan and summoning), his genjutsu was impressive (Hayate knew a few, and his "good friend", Yugao, who was very experienced in the art, agreed to help him further). Also, Naruto had passed on his own legacy and Minato's by bringing the boy along in fuinjutsu.

This was no easy task. Fuinjutsu was the most time-consuming, elaborate and meticulous of all the ninja arts. Naruto's patience was tested too many times to count; the only thing that kept him going in the art was the wish of carrying on his father's legacy. The amount of shadow clones he had exhausted and the number of scrolls he had pored over and the unholy slew of times he had stayed awake into the wee hours of the night studying by himself had led him to be a near expert. Of everything, this was what he threw himself into the most. This was his calling card.

People began to ask questions as to why Jiraiya had taken Naruto in. It was 100% indubitably against his nature to adopt random orphans. It had been decided by those two and Sarutobi that the village would be told that Naruto was the Yondaime's son; otherwise, suspicion would grow too rampant within the village and specifically among the council. The two older men at first were worried about word reaching Minato's still angry enemies, but it wasn't a good enough threat to justify keeping people in the dark. However, the kyuubi would most certainly be kept a secret. This revelation, of course, wrought a staggering change in Naruto's social standing.

The people of Konoha now saw him as the legacy of their greatest hero. No more did he disappear in a crowd. No more was he completely ignored by everyone who passed by. Now every walk in the street resulted in a parting of the crowd and respectful looks accompanied by low bows by all. Food and drinks at restaurants were always on the house. It was what the boy had dreamed of for so long. He was as happy as could be.

The clan that increased its respect for him the most by far, however, were the Uchiha.

Minato had been the greatest Hokage to them. Rather than treating them as some disease and politically cordoning them off from the village, Minato re-integrated them, as best he could, back into the village. He had done numerous things to make them feel like they were getting the special treatment their pride demanded but also put them in the social mix with the other clans.

But most importantly, of course, was the sacrifice of his life to save the Kyuubi. Since its summoning had occurred so near the Uchiha compound, it was they who had suffered the greatest losses from the attack, far more than any other clan. Therefore, they were more grateful for Minato's sacrifice than anyone else.

Because of all this, the Uchiha very much began to encourage Itachi and Shisui to become closer to Naruto, and to invite him to all sorts of family functions. All in all, Naruto had become unanimously admired by the people of Konoha.

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Last day of the academy.

Graduation time.

Naruto sat in his usual spot next to his two friends towards the front of the class. As they all sat and chatted, names were being called to conduct the graduation exam.

"Hyundai Subaru, you're up!"

The aspiring ninja was clearly very unnerved and anxious. As he walked to the door the three brothers watched him with bored indifference and curiosity.

"How is it," began the blonde, "that after all these years, anyone could possibly be worried at all about making a couple of clones?"

"They're not us, Naruto-kun. Not everyone has had the learning curve and opportunities that we have," responded Shisui. He always had the most patience of the three. Naruto had little patience in general, although it had improved dramatically, and Itachi tended not to have much patience with people weaker than him.

Naruto sighed. "I suppose so."

He checked the clock and sighed even louder. "How long do they plan to keep us here? We have legitimately important things to do."

"Don't worry, after this we will be totally free of this place. I'm so done with this academy bullshit, I won't miss it at all," Itachi replied with a hint of exasperation. "We've been here for four years too long."

"Aw, fuck yes! I hadn't thought about that! Now we'll get to train with Hayate-sensei a lot more and do real missions!"

"Yeah, real D-rank missions like catching the Fire Daimyo's wife's cat when it runs away."

At this Naruto's head hung and the Uchihas got a good laugh at his expense.

"If we spend months doing nothing but that," he said only half-jokingly, "I'll kill someone."

"Certainly Hokage-sama would not be so foolish as to waste us like that. He knows we are more than ready for C ranks. We'll probably get a few D ranks just so it looks good on all the paperwork, then he'll throw us straight into the fun stuff."

"Ok, ok, I guess I can handle that. Hey did I tell you guys about this new genjutsu-"

"Itachi Uchiha!"

"Ok, guys, wish me luck," said the new examinee.

"…."

"…."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Ok, see you in 2 minutes."

It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds.

"Ummm, ok. Shisui Uchiha!"

25 seconds.

"Wow, ok."

Naruto suspected what they had done and smirked.

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto got up and walked out the door. In the hallway, still walking as he approached the door, he made two clones. Without a word or a look, he simply walked in with his two new selves, grabbed a hitai-ite, walked out, and met his friends outside.

"Damn, guys, I broke a serious sweat, that shit was tough."

"…."

"…."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"C'mon, let's get to training."

They hadn't reflected as a group, but they were all very proud of their new gear. They were now full-fledged Konoha shinobi. Now their lives would really begin.

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"Ok, guys, that's it for today. Remember to come to the academy tomorrow at 12 to be assigned a 'random' and 'brand new' jounin sensei." He gave a knowing wink.

"Sure…(pant)…thing…(pant)…Hayate-sensei."

"Ok, now get out of here," he said playfully and shunshined away.

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As a nearly completely refreshed Naruto approached his home, he noticed Jiraiya stepping out. Immediately the famed writer noticed the boy proudly brandishing his headband.

"Hey, kid, congrats! You did it! How does it feel to be a full-fledged leaf shinobi?"

"Well the test was extremely easy…"

"That may be very true, but…"

"Where you headed, tousan?"

"You mean where are WE headed. You're coming with me."

"Ok, well where are WE headed then?"

The toad sage grinned. "The Namikaze estates."

The blonde's mouth was agape. Finally the day had come! For years Naruto had begged Jiraiya to take him to the home of his parents, knowing there had to be some kind of secret scrolls with some badass jutsu there, and more importantly some photos and memories of his parents, but the sage had said he would take him when the time came. As far as the jutsu, he didn't want Naruto to be taking up all of his time learning incredibly complex A and S rank ninjutsu when he should be diversifying his ninja skills to become a very balanced shinobi. And the memories? He wanted to wait until Naruto was more emotionally mature. He didn't want his adopted son to be overtly in despair at all the memories of his dead parents. There was no doubt he would be extremely saddned, and at the age of, say, 8 or 9, that kind of experience can be very detrimental. So he waited. But now Naruto was a shinobi, a man in that world, so now he could see. So on they went.

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From a distance the boy could see the majesty of what would have been home. The beautiful gardens out front, complete with all sorts of beautiful, exotic flowers, and behind it a sprawling, stunning mansion, all guarded by a clearly strong and very ornate gate. Naruto took two mental notes- first, a reminder that he could and should have lived here, and second, that Hokages made a hell of a lot of money. Soon the two reached the gate.

"I put a powerful seal surrounding the entire property as soon as I returned after that day. You wouldn't believe how many vultures would do anything to get their hands on the scrolls and valuables in here," Jiraiya said in disgust as he shook his head. "Promise me something, Naruto. Promise me you'll never seek power at the expense of others, only to protect those you love."

At this the blonde looked up at his tousan with a sudden serious determination that surprised the sage. "I swear on everything that I will get strong, but only by my hard work and for the purpose of protecting those precious to me. And I will never go back on my word, for that is my nindo, my ninja way!"

Hearing this, Jiraiya felt great pride welling up in his chest. He had taught his adopted son very, very well. "Attaboy," he said as he ruffled the boy's golden hair. He then began to make the long combination of hand signs required to undo the seal. "Minato would be proud." This especially made Naruto smile very big. Nothing meant more to him than honoring his father's incredible legacy. Nothing other than surpassing it and becoming great in his own right.

Presently the seal dropped and Jiraiya opened the gate. "Well come on, kid." Naruto took a moment to really take in the moment, then hurriedly followed his tousan to the front door. The sage simply turned the knob. It was unlocked so he swung it open. _They left in a hurry. _"Would you like to do the honors, kid?"

"Hell yeah I would!"

At this Jiraiya frowned. Clearly Naruto's enthusiasm for the jutsu scrolls had blinded him from the gravity of the moment. He just hoped it didn't hit him too hard.

His hopes went in vain.

The first thing the boy's eyes landed on was a large banner that hung from the ceiling and was accompanied by several balloons. It read, "Welcome Home, Naruto". His heart skipped a beat. Immediately his eyes darted to the left into a room that contained many children's toys. _My toys._

He was stunned. It had clearly never hit him how significant this trip to his parents' house was. His **parents **had **lived **here. They had expected him to live here as well. But now they were gone. Forever.

Wading in his despair, the boy turned and saw a picture. It was his mother and father. Naruto had never known what she looked like. He had seen several pictures of his father in the Hokage tower, but even then they were all serious. This was a portrayal of a smiling and clearly very happy Minato with his arm around an also very happy and very pregnant Kushina. Naruto grabbed the framed picture and sat down on the dusty floor and studied it.

Jiraiya very much anticipating the floodgates to open at this point. He decided to leave him be, at least for just a bit, to cry it out, then come in and console him. But that never came.

Sure, there were tears, but they fell gently, if steadily. He didn't cry out or make any noise at all. Just silent, almost reverent contemplation. The sage sat down next to his adopted son and wrapped a loving arm around him.

"She's so beautiful," Naruto managed to choke out. "I've never seen hair like hers."

"That's the trademark red hair of the Uzumaki. Nobody I've seen in all my travels has hair like theirs."

"What was she like?"

At this Jiraiya chuckled. "Well you can see you got you father's looks. Well your fire and determination came from Kushina. Her blood was as red hot as her hair. She was hard-headed and stubborn too," he shared as he chuckled loudly and Naruto even joined in a bit. But at the same time, she had an incredible sense of duty, honor and loyalty. She was also very kind and loving. That she shared with Minato."

"Wow she sounds a lot like me."

"Well there's one major difference between you and her."

"What's that?"

"She wasn't such a knucklehead!" he exclaimed as he began to give Naruto a good noogie. They both shared a great laugh at this. Jiraiya was glad to see he was lifting the boy's mood.

Naruto had asked what seemed like hundreds of questions over the years about his parents, including those, but Jiraiya was happy to oblige. For this reason the boy had no more questions. They simply sat for a long time as the boy contemplated the photo. Soon they got up together and explored the home. Naruto would see a picture and ask for its context, leading to Jiraiya telling many great and exciting stories Naruto had never heard. The two spent hours just looking around and reminiscing. It was a happy time, not a sad one. The two chose to enjoy the memory of their lost and celebrate the bright light of their lives, rather than grieve over their ends. It was precisely how Minato and Kushina would have wanted it.

They both could have stayed forever, but eventually they ran out of rooms. They mutually decided it was time to head to the library and retrieve what they came to retrieve.

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They stood before the ornate door of the library and contemplated the seal on it. Jiraiya decided it was time for a pop quiz for his star pupil. "Can you tell me what kind of seal this is?"

The answer came immediately. "Based on the interaction of the antepenult stroke and the penult stroke and the basic outline of the entire seal, it's a hand print seal. The corresponding hand is placed on the seal which undoes it. However, anyone's hand can be programmed by the creator to fit the seal, and if I'm correct…", Naruto explained as he placed his hand on the seal. The spot where the seal was placed sunk back into the door and it slid open. The blonde grinned. "Any direct descendant of the creator has similar enough fingerprint structure to open it as well."

"Nicely done. Now let's find you some badass jutsu," the sage shared with a grin.

Naruto barely contained himself from letting out a girly squeal. _I'm sooooo fucking excited oh my god oh my god oh my god! There's gonna be so many A and S rank jutsu in here this is the best!_

Seeing the unbridled and unparalleled excitement on the boy's face, the proxy father decided to have a little fun. He went ahead quite a bit and sure enough, the room was full of more scrolls than he had ever seen, neatly organized by rank, affinity and…clan. _There are many Uzumaki scrolls here too. Seems like Kushina brought quite a lot with her. Though I suspect the really special ones are still in the Whirlpool village. Maybe we should make a trip some…oh shit here he comes! _He quickly made a few hand signs, nothing too complicated.

Naruto walked into the library all smiles but became absolutely devastated. His smile turned down and his jaw hung open, but not in a positive way. There were giant shelves, just as he had imagined, but they were bare empty. He searched all around the huge room, but there was nothing. "PERVY SAGE WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

The sage could hardly breathe. He was trying to suppress his laughter but was failing miserably as he sat in a nearby chair. Naruto was going absolutely insane, overturning chairs, violently sifting through every single drawer searching for even one piece of paper but he was failing miserably. Finally he noticed his tousan dying of laughter. "WHAT IS SO FUNNY?"

"Look under that table over there," he managed to choke out through tears of laughter. The boy rushed over to the table he had pointed to. Underneath he found a note. He fumed as he read it. It read simply, "Genjutsu, baka!" and a face with a tongue sticking out. Naruto held up the paper. "Oh, very very funny, tousan. So funny."

Jiraiya was still dying in his seat. _Damn I'm funny. _He got up to console the boy and dispel the jutsu. On this third step, though, his feet suddenly got caught on something. As he looked down he watched as two Naruto clones materialized underneath him who were grabbing his feet. He tried to do something, but it was too late. With a loud slam, he fell face first into the ground.

Jiraiya was stunned. As he heard the incredibly loud and satisfied laughter of his adopted son, the realization sunk in. He, the legendary Sanin Jiraiya, great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, the greatest erotic writer in the elemental nations, had been utterly and totally embarrassed by a 12 year old. He didn't know what to think of himself. This was easily the most embarrassing moment of his life. He was just glad Tsunade-chan and no one else were here to see it. Either way, his pride had just taken a massive hit.

After what felt like a century, the laughing and taunting ("I got you so good old man!" and "Who's the baka? Who?") died down, and Jiraiya humbly lifted himself off the ground. "Well done, Naruto. Obviously I was caught off guard." He tried to understate the situation as much as possible.

"I noticed it right when I walked in. As soon as I did, I decided to play my part for a bit. Once I saw that you were very distracted with your laughing (at this the older man blushed especially hard) I went around a corner, layered my own genjutsu over yours, made my clones and put them into position. The rest, as they say, is history." Naruto wore the largest and proudest smile that Jiraiya thought he had ever seen.

"As embarrassing as that was for me, I'm very impressed. Your genjutsu went totally undetected, and you managed even to get your shadow clones so near without my detection. Granted, I was distracted, but either way, it was a very well thought out plan. You even layered yours on top of mine without my noticing. That, indeed, is very impressive. You're improving every day, kid." The sensei truly was proud. He had never imagined his son's learning curve would be so steep and accelerated. It was incredibly impressive, to be sure.

"Well can we look at jutsu now, tousan?"

"Oh yeah, let's!"

Naturally, eager as always, the blonde bolted to the nearest S rank section of his affinity, which happened to be wind. Inside a glass case were several rolled up scrolls. Naruto could see they were quite thick, which was unsurprising given they were S rank jutsu, and therefore quite complex. He reached down and grabbed one to begin inspection. His jaw dropped as he read what it did.

"Tousan, check this one out!"

The sage wandered over. "You know you really shouldn't bother looking at those. You're just not ready yet. B and some A is what you should focus on, at this point you're never gonna need an S rank jutsu, and to learn one would be too time-consuming and difficult at your stage and age."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, alright, just check it out."

"Let's see. Wow, this is legitimately really cool. **Heaven Bending Jutsu. **Allows the user to form a mile-wide F4 tornado." Jiraiya whistled. "Goddamn, that's some intense stuff. Now that's a battle-ender. You'd have to be in the middle of nowhere to use it though. Then again, that's the case with nearly all S ranks."

Naruto had listened to none of it. Out of nowhere Naruto produced a scroll and began sealing the jutsu scrolls inside it. Jiraiya saw this and frowned ever so slightly, but Naruto sensed his sensei's displeasure and looked up from his stashing. "Look, this is all my father and mother's stuff right? That means this is all mine now. I'm the only one who has a right to these scrolls, and damn me if I'm not gonna exercise that right. I swear on everything I'll take good care of these."

"I have no problem with that. I'm just wondering why you wouldn't simply keep them here and study and practice them here. This is an out of the way spot and I specifically picked our place so that it was very close, not even a mile. It's quieter here and there are far more tools at your disposal, as well as a large open space out back, basically a private training ground."

"Oooooooohhhhhhhhh. Right. Yeah." The blushing boy immediately unsealed all the jutsu scrolls and put them back where they belonged.

The white haired man shook his head. _I forget sometimes that he's only 12. _"Ok, now head over to the B and A sections of wind and water and get to work. I have some research to handle."

"Ok!" Naruto knew exactly what kind of research his tousan was talking about but he was too enamored. Even the B and A ranks were very impressive.

The Uzumaki studied his father's and mother's gifts well into the wee hours of the night. He was happy, and he knew they were too.

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Itachi and Shisui stood in front of a door. The door was unique and wonderfully decorated, complete with a complex seal on the front. It clearly had already been opened. "Ok, Jiraiya-sama said he should be in here." They both entered and witnessed a breathtaking sight.

The library was enormous. There were countless shelves, all brimming over with all manner of scrolls. To the left were all kinds of ancient literature and to the right were more jutsu scrolls than either had ever seen.

"I wonder which wing Naruto is in."

They both chuckled and went to the right.

"This is so much larger than the Uchiha library," said Itachi in rare awe.

"Absolutely massive," agreed his cousin.

Itachi wandered over to the fire affinity section and began eyeing the S rank scrolls.

"You really shouldn't, Itachi-kun."

"Should I not? Should I _really _not?"

Shisui was not foolish enough to try to lie to himself that he was not facing immense temptation to look at the scroll, but he had the self-control not to act on it.

"I really want to, believe me, but we really, really shouldn't. We'll ask Naruto, maybe he'll let us take a peek sometime."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have anyway. But you're right, maybe."

Soon they reached the water section, where Naruto was in exactly the position they had thought- head on desk, drooling all over it, dead asleep. Luckily the scroll he was studying, an A rank water, of course, was to the side of his head so that none of his drool stained it.

"Would you like to do the honors, Itachi?" Shisui whispered deviously.

"With pleasure."

The younger Uchiha wasted no time in performing a simple jutsu which caused a small flame to appear on his finger, like a candle.

The boy quickly but quietly put it under the part of Naruto's ass that was not sitting on the seat. In a few seconds there was a loud yelp.

"OW OW OW! WHAT THE FUCK!"

At this point Shisui and Itachi were having some great laughs at their good friend's expense. He, meanwhile, was flipping shit.

"FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

"Naruto, chill, we stopped a while ago."

The boy managed to calm down and catch his breath. "Oh, oh, ok. Damn you guys got me good," he said as he put his hand behind his head and flashed a big grin.

"Damn right we did," Shisui sneered jokingly and fist bumped his cousin.

"Anyway, you know you totally missed the genin meet right?"

"What? Oh my god I totally forgot! I didn't have an alarm!" he said in a panic as he looked for the time.

"Dude, it's like 3. The meeting was at noon."

"Fuuuucccckkkkk."

"I mean normally Hayate-sensei or someone else might actually kind of care, but everybody and their summon already knows we're all with him so who cares," Itachi observed.

"Yeah, good point. Still though, I haven't been late for anything in years. What about training?"

"Hayate-sensei gave us the day off." Shisui noticed Naruto's facial expression. "I know, it's the first day off we've had in years. Evidently all the other genin teams have a real test they have to pass with their respective senseis. The passing rate is much lower for those."

"Thank God," the other two said simultaneously. Naruto continued. "All these whack-ass wannabes thinking they bout it when they not. They can suck this long dick before they make ninja."

"Well that was interesting."

"Sorry I lapse into it sometimes. I think I get it from my mom."

Itachi glanced over at his cousin, who immediately understood and nodded. "Hey, Naruto-kun…"

Naruto ignored it or didn't hear. "Hey, did you guys see all these scrolls? Isn't it incredible how many there are? I've never seen a library half this big! These were all from my mom and dad."

"It's extremely impressive, for sure," Itachi allowed.

"You guys wanna look at some?"

Both the Uchiha's eyes lit up. "No way! Really? You'd let us look at your private family scrolls?"

"Absolutely! I mean why not? You guys have been like brothers to me ever since that first day at the academy. What's mine is yours. Besides, what am I going to do with all those jutsu that aren't my affinity? Just don't take them out, obviously, but you're absolutely free to come here and study whenever I'm here to open the door. And believe me, I'll be here a lot."

Both Uchiha approached Naruto for a semi-emotional bro hug. "You're the best, Naruto-kun."

"I second that."

Naruto felt a sudden pang of realization as he wondered what they would think of him if they knew that was inside him.

His dreams had become more frequent over the years. At this point he had gained a respectful rapport with the fox, if not a friendly one. He briefly remembered how the conversation had gone.

(Flashback: Several months earlier)

_The boy stood in what looked like a sewage drain. At this point he had become totally accustomed to it. He briskly and unhesitatingly took a right and strolled to the large red gate._

"_Kyuubi."_

"_**Naruto.**__"_

_They were like an elderly couple, tired of each other, expect that there was little love lost between the two. However, they had a deep-seated and inexplicable respect for one another._

"_Just give me your power."_

"_**Ok.**__"_

_Naruto took a deep breath as he readied himself to launch into the speech he had prepared, but then stopped as he digested what the fox had said._

"_Wait, what?"_

"_**You do remember that I share your thoughts, right? I already know your argument, and it makes enough sense. I'm willing to hear you out. I'm not some totally unreasonable, purely hate-filled being. I find it perfectly fine that you want to use my chakra to defend yourself, because it's true, I do die if you die, so why the hell not?**__"_

"_Oh. Ok. Cool." Naruto was extremely shocked to say the least. He hadn't expected this at all._

"_**However, there are two caveats. First, your mortal body is still too young and weak to handle all my chakra, nor am I necessarily willing to give it all. You can go up to three tails in the chakra cloak.**__"_

"_Understandable. One day we'll be there."_

"_**Hmph. I wouldn't hold my breath. Anyway, the second condition is that if I give you the ability to use my chakra, it'll weaken the seal enough to the point that we'll have a permanent link of communication. Whenever we want, we'll be able to talk.**__"_

"_I suppose that could come in handy."_

"_**I agree. I have much wisdom to impart on you if you're going to be even half worthy enough to be my container.**__"_

"_Oh please, don't get on one of your self-absorbed rants."_

"_**Whatever.**__"_

"_Hey, do you think…"_

"_**No, we're not on that good of terms yet. My name stays unknown to you.**__"_

"_Fair enough. I'm out."_

**The boy has potential, **_**the beast thought. **_**He might just be the one…**

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In a faraway land an ANBU kneeled before his master.

"Report, Tsenchi."

"My spies have received some…troubling news, Tsuchikage-sama."

The Tsuchikage was somewhat disturbed. Normally his ANBU commander did not preface a report, especially not in such a way.

"Continue."

"We have discovered that the Yellow Flash of Konoha has a son."

Onoki visibly paled. His day had just gotten much worse. He couldn't have dreamed up a worse report.

"How old is he?"

"12 years old."

The old man didn't hesitate. "This is a threat that needs to be dealt with immediately. Send whomever you need, but the boy must die."

"But Tsuchikage-"

"**Get it done**, Tsenchi. You know what happens to those who fail me." The ANBU swallowed as he recalled the fate of his predecessor.

"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."

"You are dismissed."

As the commander shunshined away, he was left to wonder how he could manage to infiltrate Konoha and bypass Jiraiya the Sannin to get to the boy. He shook his head and tried not to imagine the consequences if he didn't.

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**That was my longest chapter so far, hope you enjoyed.**

**I'd like to give a quick shout out to the other stories on this account, namely, The Curse of the Hatake, a dramatic one-shot that was quite popular; Ill-Fated, the other long project I've begun. It's only in its first chapter, but it's very exciting right from the start and will not disappoint; and finally, The Adventures of an ANBU Trainee. This is the first story written by BarelySage, and I can assure you it's absolutely hilarious, especially once you get into the first real chapter. Please take time to check these all out, they will be worth your time, I promise.**

**Rate and Review**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Making Waves**

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_4 Weeks Later_

Four shadows stood in a forest. One stood a distance away from the other three, who were all surrounding a single target. They all wore portable radios.

"This is Toad, I've got eyes on the target, over."

"Crow reporting in, so do I, over."

"Wolf here, I'm in position, over."

A fourth voice spoke up. "Alright, you know the plan. Go in 3, 2, 1, now!"

Suddenly two shuriken flew from one of the trees, surrounding the target from the north and east. The target, in its panic, ran in a direction opposite those shuriken, which happened to be more west than south. As it ran to the tree line, a figure popped out and the two locked eyes.

"Sharingan!"

The cat collapsed. Shisui walked over and picked it up, checking to see that it was asleep and not dead. "Wolf reporting in, the target is in hand."

"Can you confirm that it's the target?"

"Yes, pink bow above the left ear. Mission success."

"Well done, everybody meet at the LZ."

2 minutes later, Naruto, Itachi, Shisui and Hayate were outside the forest. Shisui was still holding the sleeping cat.

"Well done, team," began the sensei. "That was an excellent strategy, Naruto."

The young blonde put his hand behind his head and grinned wide. "Nah, it wasn't that great. If we hadn't had two guys with the sharingan it probably wouldn't have worked. It wasn't too hard to figure that the cat would move away from the shuriken, then all we had to do was set you two up and wait."

"Still, coming up with that on the spot was great work," Shisui input.

"Indeed," Itachi agreed.

Naruto smiled all the way to the Hokage tower.

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Team Hayate stood in a sizable room in front of Sarutobi, Iruka and a few others waiting to be assigned their next mission. Meanwhile the wife of the Fire Daimyo walked out as she smothered her recently received cat.

As the Hokage was about to speak, Hayate cut him off. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, but I would like to say something."

"Very well then, Hayate, you are free to speak," he conceded.

He cleared his throat. "Sir, I believe my team is more than capable of beginning C and possibly even B rank missions. They are all well beyond the standard for genin and their teamwork is impeccable. I implore you to award this team with a higher ranking mission."

Hayate's three students beamed at the recommendation they had received. They all knew they were ready, but they weren't so brash as to complain and question the Hokage as mere genin. But this request from a special jonin sensei was a great sign.

"Actually, Hayate, I was just about to say the very same thing."

At this all 4 perked up and smiled.

_**Took the old man long enough, **_the Kyuubi commented.

_You can say that again, _Naruto agreed.

"You all have completed 63 D rank missions in 4 weeks. That is absolutely unheard of. I had been planning to hold off on bumping up your mission grade for at least a couple of months, but this is just ridiculous. I couldn't hold you back any longer if I wanted to. Therefore, here is your first C rank mission," he said with a smile.

The friends did some simple celebratory bro handshakes but didn't flip shit. They nearly always kept a cool demeanor because they were way too badass to get excited about almost anything, especially not just a C rank mission.

What does the mission consist of, Jiji-san?" Naruto questioned. Ever since he was a small child Hiruzen had taken Naruto under his wing and looked out for him. Naruto would come to his office several times a week, and had started calling him Jiji-san. The name still stuck.

"It's a simple civilian escort to the Nami no Kuni. The client is a bridge builder named Tazuna. He should be arriving soon. Keep in mind that your performance on this mission will determine what kind of missions you receive in the future."

Before any response could be made, in stepped a humbly-dressed man gripping a 40 ounce bottle of booze. "I'm Tazuna! Where the hell are my escorts?"

Hayate stepped forward. "It is a pleasure, Tazuna-san. I am Hayate Gekko, a special jonin of this village. My team of genin and I will be escorting you to your destination. These are Itachi, Shisui and Naruto." All three stepped forward and gave sincere bows.

Tazuna wore a frustrated and puzzled look on his face. "You're sending a bunch of brats to watch over me?!" All three "brats" twitched a bit but said nothing.

Hayate was appalled. "I'll have you know that these so-called 'brats' are full-blown ninja who are more dangerous than they may appear and could kill you in the blink of an eye. Don't worry about it, I am a certified jonin as well so you will be protected for a standard C rank mission."

The bridge builder nodded slowly considering his last sentence for a moment. "Fine, let's go."

Hayate turned to his team. "Be at the gate and ready to go in 30 minutes."

"Hai, Hayate-sensei," came the unanimous response. And they all shunshined away.

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25 minutes later the group of five were ready to leave the village. The three kids, although they wouldn't show it, were incredibly anxious. They had never left the village walls before and couldn't wait to see what the world outside really looked like. On top of that, it was their first real mission. While they were almost totally certain nothing interesting would occur, the possibility of danger legitimately existed now. It was a chance for them to prove themselves even further.

Now the five journeyers stood at the village gates. Hayate surveyed his group. "Alright, is everyone ready?" Three eager nods and a reluctant and annoyed fourth one answered his question. "Ok, we're off."

After an hour or two of walking Naruto spoke up. "Hey, Hayate-sensei, how far is the trip to Nami?"

As soon as he finished the question, the blonde picked up a strange sight. He quickly exchanged glances with his teammates to ensure that they saw it too. The warning looks in their eyes said they had. "Oh yeah, it's a few days. Hey can we all take a bathroom break?"

"Yeah, Hayate-sensei, I sure could use one," Shisui agreed.

"Me too," Itachi said.

"We've been walking for no more than an hour and a half and these brats already need a break? Pathetic," mumbled Tazuna.

"I agree with them, and I suggest you take one too, Tazuna-san," Hayate decided.

The builder gave him a cross look. "Fine. We can go in those woods."

All 5 wandered into different parts of the forest to do their stuff. Meanwhile two ninja conversed.

"Do you think they discovered us, nii-san?"

"Of course not, don't be a fool. This puddle camouflage is flawless! We'll ambush them when they come back onto the road and take them out quicker than they can think."

A devious smile came across the other's face. "You always were the brilliant one."

Sure enough, a few minutes later the group of five emerged from the woods and continued on their path. Immediately the two Kiri ninja with a chain connecting them rushed with incredible speed at the group.

Before any could even move, Tazuna, their objective, had been nailed by the dangerous chain. As the Demon Brothers looked back to attack the rest of the group, they noticed that the two they had hit had…disappeared in a puff of smoke. Before they could think about their next move, a yell from the trees interrupted their thoughts.

"**Doton: Earth Dome Jutsu!**" Suddenly, a wall of earth surrounded and trapped them. All attempts with both taijutsu and water jutsu to break the dome were useless. It was over.

Once the jutsu was complete, the _real _escort group emerged from the trees. Naruto walked up and placed a seal on the dome. "This will absorb all their chakra within a couple of minutes. Then we can drop the dome and interrogate them while they're exhausted."

Hayate was clearly welling up with pride at the success of his pupils. "Well, guys, I could not have dreamt up a sounder and more decisive defeat. Not only did you spot their attempted ambush, but you immediately banded together and made a plan to capture them without killing them and executed it perfectly. Sure it was simple, and they couldn't have been more than chunin, but this was your first real fight and you dominated. Way to go."

They all shared an easy expression. He was right, it had been sound and decisive. In other words, it was boring and easy as hell. Their sensei picked up their thoughts in an instant. "A word to the wise: don't let this go to your head. It won't be long before you're facing enemies far stronger than these, and when you don't want to get humbled in a battle against a strong enemy, because that means serious injury or death. Keep that in mind."

The three genin were surprised at the seriousness of his words and were all ashamed of themselves. He was right- they should not be so full of themselves. None of them had ever been the type to overtly brag or boast about their skills, but this time their success had gotten the best of them. In order to get stronger, they had to have the mindset that they were always too weak. This is the only way to get good at anything.

Meanwhile, Tazuna was decidedly impressed at the performance of his escorts. However, realizing the trouble he was probably in, he attempted to slowly walk away. But his efforts were fruitless.

After his lecture to the boys, the master swordsman turned his attention to his client. "And you, bridge builder, where do you think you're going? You have a lot of explaining to do, and right now."

The embarrassed man sauntered back over. "What are you talking about?" he said a little too defensively.

"Well, it was exceedingly obvious that you were their target. Why else would they kill the civilian first? If I were fighting a group of ninja, I surely wouldn't attack a random civilian that was with them first- unless that was my objective."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm not trying to say anything. What I am doing is demanding that you tell us right now what you're hiding before I call this entire mission off."

Tazuna sighed deeply. "Fine. I'll tell you the truth. The bridge you're escorting me to, that I have to build, is the center of a bit of controversy, one might say."

"What do you mean exactly?"

"The purpose of the bridge is to connect Nami no Kuni to Hi no Kuni, thus causing trade to flourish and our impoverished nation to receive an influx of economical stimulation. However, there is one man who is dead set against it- Gato, the billionaire shipping magnate."

"He's said to be one of the richest men in the elemental nations," Itachi commented.

"It's true, but he is a very evil man. He has an iron-fisted monopoly on the entire economy of Nami. He controls the seas, which are the only manner of trade we currently have, so he charges exorbitant tariffs on our already poor people just to make even more money. His greed is unparalleled."

"That's terrible," Naruto input. "What a terrible man."

"Indeed, and it seems he'll stop at nothing to prevent this bridge from being built, even sending mercenary ninja to kill an old man."

Hayate sighed. _What a headache. _"Listen, it is a crime to purposefully underpay for a mission. This has now been upgraded to a B and possibly A rank mission, yet you requested a C, for standard protection against bandits and theifs. We do not have to continue with this mission. However, I will let my team decide whether or not to continue on with the mission while I interrogate these two fools. Shisui, drop the dome."

A few hand signs later and two exhausted ninja appeared from underneath the dome. They couldn't even sit up, but they didn't need to sit up to answer some questions.

Meanwhile, Team 7 decided what to do. Itachi spoke first. "Listen, we all know what the right thing to do is. However, we have to think about the economy of Konoha. If we take this mission, for which we would be vastly underpaid, it might send a dangerous message that Konoha is willing to do this all the time. This could lead not only to failed missions but to dead ninja and clients. Also, none of us are cowards, but we have to tactically consider the possibility of more ninja being sent to hunt us down. Sure, this time they were maybe C rank garbage nins, but what if next time it's a B rank jonin, or even A rank? The quality of ninja we end up facing could go way over our heads really fast."

The Uchiha's two friends nodded in understanding agreement. However, between the three of them they all knew it was a foregone conclusion what decision they would make. The determined looks of his two friends cemented Itachi's decision.

"Good to know you guys still aren't pussies," he commented with a sly smile. It was returned with a couple of grins.

Before long, Hayate had returned. "Those guys had nothing new to share. It was just as the client said, they were mercenaries of Gato. Well, what conclusion did you reach? Should we keep going or abandon the mission?"

The three nodded at each other. "We're giving our word to Tazuna-san that we will rescue his village, and we never go back on our word, for that is our nindo, our ninja way," Naruto stated strongly.

Tazuna was secretly elated and Hayate was yet again proud. "I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm very proud of you all, I hope you know that."

Just when Naruto was about to thank his beloved teacher he was mentally interrupted.

_**Awwww, how adorable!**_ the demon fox said oh-so-sarcastically.

_Shut up, you baka fox. Nobody asked you, _the blonde retorted. But this just made the Kyubbi laugh even harder.

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In the largest forest near Takigakure lay the palace of the River Daimyo. At three in the morning, the lord was asleep and the enormous mansion was surrounded by a combination of Taki ninja and hired samurai. Two hidden figures assessed the situation from the trees.

"There are 10 immediately around the entrance gate and 30 total patrolling the courtyard. A lot of them seem to be high-ranking samurai, but the ninja are just genin. I would guess that the higher-ranking, more trusted nins are inside the mansion, closer to the target," spoke a silver-haired ANBU with a dog mask.

"He really is rich. This amount of ninja guarding him 24/7 does not come cheap," added a black-haired one with a demon mask.

"He's rich, but so are the nobles who paid Konoha so much money to have him killed. Based on all these guards, he clearly knows how many enemies he has."

"Agreed. Now how will we deal with these guards? I would think that a distraction should be in play."

"Good idea. Here's what we'll do…"

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The guards on duty were on high alert. Their leader had told them to be very wary, and the pay was great, so every one of them were determined to do a good and diligent job. Presently a figure approached the main gate.

"Halt! Identify yourself in the name of the River Daimyo!" one of the samurai demanded.

The figure didn't respond, but merely continued walking to the gate.

"I said identify yourself!"

No response. The guards all gathered at the gate, attempting to get an eye on the figure, but it was very dark so it couldn't be made out.

Finally the samurai drew his sword and became heated. "For the last time, identify yourself or face death!"

But before the samurai could follow through with his threat, the figure became visible.

At the sight of the person, all of the genin on guard duty suffered unconsciousness from massive nose bleeds, while the samurai managed to keep it together, but just barely. The person they saw was an angelic figure, beyond angelic even. She wore nothing but a bikini that was way too tight. She had a perfect face and gigantic DD breasts and a perfect ass, which were covered by her flawless, goddess-like silver hair. However, what startled the samurai that remained were the numerous cuts and bruises on her body. She had clearly been beaten up.

"Open the gate immediately for this beautiful lady! She needs help, now!" Soon every guard in the courtyard had abandoned their post to get a look at the lovely lady.

Two figures in the trees stood. One was amused while the other shook his head. "I knew that clone would work. It's just genin, who aren't advanced enough to detect clones and are easily gullible, and samurai who don't know how to detect chakra at all. That'll occupy them for a while," he said with a smile.

Obito said nothing but shook his head. _Damn, Kakashi, your methods are certainly unorthodox but they sure as hell work. _With that the two teleported using Obito's sharingan to one of the now unguarded doors.

As they arrived, Kakashi looked seriously over at his partner. "We have no more than 5 minutes before the jonin inside notice the commotion in the courtyard and point out our fake. Otherwise we'll have to fight our way out."

Obito nodded and responded, "Since none of the windows were his bedroom, he must be in a safe room downstairs." He led the way as Kakashi cautiously followed.

As soon as they walked in the main corridor, they spotted a sleeping guard sitting on a chair, who was rewarded for his servitude with a slit throat. Then Obito absorbed the body into his dimension so no other patrol would walk by and find the body. They didn't run into anybody else before they found a stairway. They communicated in hand signals that this was almost certainly the way to the bedroom.

As they began to creep down the stairway, Kakashi smelled an approaching ninja around the corner. Meanwhile, Obito continued down the stairs quickly. Kakashi quietly dispatched the Taki chunin but by then his partner was gone, so he was forced to let down the body against the wall and hope for the best as he quickly went after his partner.

Obito sensed 10 Taki ninja at the foot of the stairs, whom he presumed to be jonin. They stood in front of double doors at the end of the short hallway, which he assumed was the Daimyo's bedroom. _I must take care of this before Kakashi reaches me, _Obito thought. _They don't know I'm here, so I'll have to handle this in one move._

The man with one sharingan rounded the corner with blinding speed and his Mangekyo sharingan at the ready. Before any of the tired and totally unprepared nins could move, they were swallowed up by his jutsu.

"**Amaterasu,**" he whispered. After a few short screams of pain, the black flames had consumed their targets and Obito cancelled the jutsu. He hurried into the bedroom.

There lay the River Daimyo, in all his glory, fully asleep and totally unaware of what was going on. The Uchiha wasted no time in briskly walking over and unceremoniously and cleanly slitting the old man's neck, making sure not to spill any blood on the bed, and taking him into his dimension.

He sensed Kakashi slowly coming down the stairs, so he dashed to the vault in the room and swung it open- luckily, it had been unlocked. With his gloves, he could file through the documents inside. His eyes fell upon the ones he had been searching for. _These are exactly them. Perfect. _He had just enough time to absorb the document and put everything back in its place before Kakashi ran through the door.

The silver-haired man was surprised to see that the bed was empty until it hit him that his partner must have dealt with it. "Come on," he spoke. "We have to grab all the sensitive documents and money in the room then burn it and get out of here before the whole place is alerted to our position."

Obito nodded and began collecting the items. Before long an alarm went off throughout the entire palace, but by then the mission was complete and all the items gathered. The Uchiha noticed his partner's somewhat worried expression. "You know that I can teleport to a place once I know where it is. The only trouble comes when I don't know a place, otherwise we would have teleported into here from the start. It seems like we have everything, let's go."

Kakashi picked up his old friend's unusually happy tone, but he decided not to say anything. He secretly enjoyed seeing his partner upbeat, though, since it was so rare nowadays. Obito now reached out and grabbed the copy ninja's shoulder so they could both teleport. "Mission accomplished, Devil."

Obito nodded. _Mission accomplished indeed. _He performed an **Amaterasu** to ensure that the place would burn.

And just like that they were gone.

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**Rate and Review**


	7. Author Note

**AN**

**Hey, what's up guys? Usually I would put this at the end of a chapter but just to let you know my other story: Ill-Fated is taking longer than usual so I asked BarelySage to whip up an omake from his story: Adventures of an ANBU Trainee. Hopefully I will get it done soon to upload so I hope you like this in the meantime.**

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**Omake- Anbu Trainee Torture and Spy Training**

Naruto stood in a dark room alone as he waited for Cat to show up. Today senior members would be training the trainees. Neji was with him before but was taken out of the room for Torture Training. They had their pick of Torture or Spy training with one of them having to go with what the other didn't want. Naruto chose spy over whatever torture could be.

**"That Hyuuga boy seemed like a smart person and was doing way better than you in this Anbu training." **said Kurama in Naruto's head. **"But to choose torture over spy work? He must be insane, especially with this lady."**

_Yeah, I know right. I've been through enough torture these past 3 and a half weeks. I'm glad I actually got to choose which training to do. I can't wait to get done with this easy spy training. _thought Naruto back to Kurama before he straightened up at the appearance of Cat in the room.

"Gama. This will be your mask for today's training." said Cat as she held up a toad mask and a small orange thong. "Strip down into nothing but your mask and put on this, you'll need it for what you're about to do."

The now named Gama looked hesitant to undress in front of Cat but he had to do it, lest he wanted to feel the wrath of failing to follow instructions. After a comment of 'nice package' once he was completely nude, Gama caught the tiny thong before he put it on.

"Really 'nice package'." said Cat again as the thong couldn't hold back everything. "Good, now you're ready for your training. This training will require Anbu level deception and Anbu qualities of being able to adapt to any situation while becoming a spy. Now get out there"

"Cat-sensei. I have a question." said Gama as he felt a kunai pierce his back, payment for asking a question. "What will I be looking for?"

"You'll have to notice it when you get on stage. Now go." said Cat as Gama began to walk out.

_Stage...Oh_ no. thought Gama as a spotlight shined on him. Gama heard several whistles from different areas of the room. _Baa-chan's here? What the hell?_

"Get on with it!" said Tsunade slamming down a sake glass. Gama noticed several other kunoichi from his village were there including Anko, Kurenai, and Hana.

_This is the strip club...how embarassing _thought Gama as he heard a voice.

"Alright ladies, coming up to the stage is a man with luster, buster, and a whole lot of d***. Ladies love him and men want to be him, introducing Anbu trainee, Gama!" came the voice of the DJ as sexy stripper music played.

_This is going to suck...I wonder what Neji is going through. _thought Gama as he began to dance for the patrons in the club.

(_Somewhere in a Dark Room)_

Neji was strapped to a table, bound tightly as he prepared for his torture. Cat told him that it'd start in 3 minutes and it was just about time. His eyes were forced open as he saw the side of the room he was forced to look at, open up to reveal a large TV. The TV flickered on as Neji now grew a terrified look at what was being projected on the screen.

The TV was showing a view of Gama in his orange thong and mask sliding down a pole as he watched one of his close friends exotically dance. It didn't help that he was forced to keep his Byakugan active and the image of Gama dancing would forever be burned into his memory with vivid hd detail because he was staring at it so intensely.

Neji screamed in terror as the tiny article of clothing barely covering Gama ripped off and left him nude. This was definitely the worst amount of torture he had ever been through, even worse than when he was forced to help a naked Lee get back from practice in the middle of the day as a part of their stealth training. Anbu training was hard...

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**Thanks for reading and the next chapter should be up soon.**


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Making Waves Part 2**

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A couple more days and the group found themselves in a small clearing in front of a lake. There was a light fog all about the place. 

"We're drawing quite close to Nami no Kuni now," Tazuna informed his fellow travelers. Just as one of them was about to breathe a sigh of relief, they all sensed something. 

"Duck!" 

Just over their heard a gigantic sword the size of Hayate flew and stuck against a tree. Then, in the blink of an eye, a daunting figure shunshined onto it. "Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of Kirigakure," their sensei said menacingly. "Hayate Gekko, Konoha's blade master. It's a pleasure. Look, I don't want to kill you and your brats, but I will if I must. Just hand over the bridge builder, now." 

Hayate addressed his team. "Be careful, this guy is a high-A ranked ninja and he will not hesitate to kill you. Genji formation, now! No matter what, protect the client!" 

Naruto sighed silently but didn't complain, as he knew what Genji formation meant. That formation consisted of him making 5 shadow clones, 4 to stay with him and protect the client, and one to go with the rest of the team to fight the target. He knew this had nothing to do with skill level; after all, he knew he was the only one who could use shadow clones. So he never complained. 

The Demon of Kiri saw their movements and shook his head. "Fine, have it your way. **Hidden Mist Jutsu**" 

A thick fog formed that was entirely opaque, even to the Uchihas' sharingan. Naruto was very wary and somewhat concerned until he heard his sensei's voice.

"Naruto, use your wind style!" _Oh yeah, duh_.

"**Futon: Sweeping Current**"

Within seconds the mist had dissipated. Zabuza, who was sitting in the trees nearby and had been preparing to strike, was aggravated. _Of course they have to have a wind user. I guess wind beats two elements- the element of lightning and the element of surprise. Let's try to end this quickly._

"**Water Clone Jutsu**" he whispered. The clone went off to fight the group of three while the original went straight for the bridge builder. The original saw the several Naruto in his path. Drawing water from the lake nearby, he performed another jutsu.

"**Suiton: Water Dragon Jutsu**" 

Naruto witnessed as a huge dragon of water formed and came barreling toward him. He acted quickly. Instinctively, one clone grabbed Tazuna and took him closer to the woods. The rest attempted to fend off the dragon as it raced toward them. 

"**Futon: Gale Palm**!" all four shouted. As a result, the dragon was buffeted, but only a bit, as it raged on and nailed its targets. 

Zabuza grinned at his attack's success. _Did he really think some weak-ass C rank jutsu would stop my A-rank? Give me a break _he scoffed mentally.

Now he rapidly approached his target, the bridge builder. The single Naruto left ran hastily out to stop the oncoming attack, but with one efficient cut of the huge sword he disappeared in a poof. 

Now there was only a fearful and helpless Tazuna left. The Demon was very close now and he noticed his victim cringing. But once Zabuza was within a few feet, with his sword raised, the old man stopped cringing and just faced him. Zabuza found this strange but he kept at the man anyway. 

He was mere feet from the man's head when the bridge builder formed a cocky smile. The old man's mouth opened and he showed his tongue, which was now no more than a foot away from Zabuza's face.

Explosive tags.

_Henge! _Zabuza yelled and everything went black.

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The Demon of Kiri awoke in a dark chamber, with a very beautiful young girl looking down on him.  
He was groggy and exhausted and his vision was blurred. "You're finally awake," his caretaker said gently. 

"How long have I been out?" 

"It was like I said before, about a day." 

"What happened? All I remember last is...seeing those explosive tags." 

"I managed to get you with my senbon just before he set those off. You're extremely fortunate I was there or you would not be here right now, tou-chan," she said worriedly and gently hugged her father.

"You have to stop being so reckless." 

Zabuza had a sorry look as he stroked his daughter's face lovingly. "I know, Haku-chan, I know. I very much underestimated that boy, all of them for that matter. They were excellent ninja for their ages, much like you." 

Haku nodded. "In any case, don't act so hastily next time, although I understand that we have to deal with them." She paused. 

"Actually, no I don't. Why are we here? Why are we working for this evil man Gato?" 

Zabuza sighed deeply. "Because even if we have to do some regrettable things, we need the money and refuge he can provide us with. Constantly being on the run from Kiri oinin has been so exhausting. Ever since I got you out of there they've been on us nonstop. You know what I mean. We need structure. For you." 

Haku looked down sadly. "You're right tou-chan. You're right." 

The father painfully sat up so he could properly hug his beloved daughter and gave her a grimaced smile. "Aren't I always?" 

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The mysterious Kiri oinin had left with her prey, Zabuza Momochi. Naruto turned to his team, who had appeared just after the Kiri nin. 

"That was...interesting," the boy understated. 

"You have no idea. Zabuza wasn't dead, as his chakra was still active. That Kiri oinin was a fake, most likely an accomplice of his." 

"What?! Are you serious? Why didn't we continue the attack?" It was in moments like these that Naruto's old brash nature emerged. Some things he truly found ridiculous. Hayate answered first. "We don't know the abilities of that girl. It was a much better idea to regroup and make them think they have us deceived than to launch a haphazard and disorganized attack." 

"I suppose you're correct, Sensei," the Uzumaki sighed. "Hey what took you guys so long? I was seconds away from beating the real thing while you guys took that long just to beat a water clone? I'm unimpressed," he smirked. 

"Uhh that's funny because it took us all of about 30 seconds to get rid of that clone," Itachi sneered.

"But Shisui and I noticed with our sharingan that the Tazuna standing there was a fake as well as the explosive tags inside him, so we didn't want to interfere in your plan, which was admittedly genius. You knew he had way underrated you and you took advantage of that." 

"Oh ok, I see. Well, you know me," he grinned and put his hand behind his head. 

_**We both know I came up with that plan. I understand you can't exactly give me credit but you don't have to be so smug about it**_, the Kyuubi said jealously. 

_Whatever, man_, Naruto answered. 

Hayate chuckled. "Well we're nearing Nami no Kuni now. Grab the bridge builder and let's be off." 

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Finally the group of five reached Tazuna's house in Nami. When they walked in, a boy and a beautiful lady, clearly his mother, were there to greet them.

"Good to see you're back!" The mother went up and hugged Tazuna. She looked at the Konoha ninja.

"Thank you so much for being here. I'm Tsunami, and this is my son Inari." The young black-haired boy didn't say anything but rudely looked away. 

Tsunami frowned. "Inari, don't be so rude. These ninja are risking their lives to save our village."  
At this the boy looked up at them all, and streaks of tears were clear to see on his face.

"They're not going to save anything!" He passionately choked out. "They're just throwing their lives away, it's all pointless!" He turned around and ran up the stairs. His mother looked down and said nothing.

The shinobi were all surprised by this outburst, but Itachi, always the perceptive one, noticed a nearby picture of the mother, son, and grandfather as well as another man the same age as Tsunami and picked it up.

"His father?" The young Uchiha spoke gently. Tazuna nodded.

"Not genetically, but for all intents and purposes, yes. Inari never knew his father, but Kaiza one day saved him from drowning, and since then treated him like his own son. They had a fierce love for each other. Kaiza loved Nami and instilled that love into Inari. But one day he stood up to Gato, trying to protect Nami, and he paid for that with his life."

Tazuna was extremely downtrodden and Tsunami had silent tears in her eyes. "Ever since, Inari has resented the memory of Kaiza, believing he betrayed his promise to protect him and the village. The boy is broken." All the ninja nodded. They certainly didn't blame the boy for his behavior.

"Well it's late guys, we should probably go to sleep," Hayate said to his team to break the awkward silence. Tsunami offered to show them their rooms and before long they were all in bed. Since the family was one of humble means, Hayate got his own room but the boys had to share one.

They didn't mind this though, as they were best friends, and they'd never spent a night together, thanks to the rigid rules of the Uchiha. Naturally their conversation shifted to the things 12 year olds always talk about.

"So Naruto, who you trying to get busy with?" Shisui asked laughingly. The blonde shook his head and had a serious look on his face. "You know, there are things other than sex in a relationship. Maybe I'm looking for some real love."

They all looked at each other silently for a second. Then they burst into laughter and continued. "Nah but for real, who you trying to bang? There's got to be someone."

"Well there's this one girl who was in the class above us, I don't know her name, but she's got like, dark, short hair and dark eyes and...I don't know, I'm not good at describing people but she is pretty though."

"Yeah you just described like 50% of the girls in that class, I have no idea who the fuck you're talking about," Itachi said with a condescending chuckle.

"Is it an Uchiha? Cause you don't have to be with an Uchiha to be our bro. I would not blame you though, Uchihas have the best genetics and natural good looks." Shisui asked with an amused look on his face.

"Then you must be adopted because you look like a training log that got burnt by Itachi's fire jutsu." Naruto and Itachi both laughed at Shisui's mock hurt expression.

"Whatever, bro. What about you two?" Naruto spoke up trying to flip the conversation onto them. Both the Uchiha looked at each other slyly.

"There's nobody," Shisui remarked, obviously lying. Naruto raised one eyebrow. "So you're gay for each other? Is that it?" The other two laughed but said nothing.

"You guys are dicks, I can't believe you won't tell me. I bet Hayate-Sensei would make you say if he was here."

"What the hell, haha why?" Naruto turned over in his cot. "Whatever."

"Hayate-Sensei is the best," Itachi somewhat randomly stated. The others were somewhat put off by this randomness but sincerely agreed.

"Ever since we started this training," Naruto began, "I would say he's been like a second father to all of us. I mean the number of times he took us out for dinner on his paycheck, carried us home after a particularly rough day of training, mended our wounds, and overall put up with our shit for all these years is amazing, especially since it was every single day. He loves us and I love him right back." Itachi and Shisui both nodded vigorously.

"Don't get me wrong when I say this, because I love my tousan, but in a lot of ways I'm even closer to Hayate. My father is always cold and sometimes I go a full day without seeing him, weeks without hearing a word of encouragement, and months without him showing a sign of affection. Hayate has always been the very opposite of that." Itachi nodded again, as he could easily sympathize with his cousin, as both their fathers were close brothers and very similar. Naruto couldn't exactly sympathize, but he certainly understood where his best friend was coming from. And with that the boys all fell into a deep and restful sleep. 

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Naruto awoke the next day very well rested. He looked around and saw that the cots his two friends had been sleeping in were empty. This worried him a bit, but not too much. A look out of the window let him know that it was an especially foggy and miserable day in Nami. With a frown the boy rolled out of bed, stretched and approached the door to go out. But as he was about to slide it open the Uzumaki noticed a note on the door.

It read, "Shisui, Itachi and I going to bridge to watch client. You stay here and watch the family. Have fun! -Hayate-sensei" 

The boy's frown deepened. _Left behind for babysitting again. Of course._

He slowly slid open the door and sauntered into the dining room. Seeing nobody was there, probably still asleep, he continued on outside and jumped on the roof of the house. After making 9 shadow clones, 5 to scout the nearby area and 4 to kenjutsu spar with each other, he simply sat and hoped something eventful would happen. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Meanwhile, the two Uchiha and their sensei were hoping the exact opposite when two figures appeared at some distance from where they were standing. It was very difficult to make out who they were thanks to the thickness of the fog, but it wasn't too hard for Hayate to figure out who they might be. 

After yelling to every bridge builder to clear out his workers as fast as possible, he and his team approached the two shadowy figures. Sure enough, there stood Zabuza Momochi and his mysterious accomplice. 

"I don't suppose you're suddenly willing to listen to reason?" the demon began. 

"And I don't suppose you are?" Hayate returned. Zabuza nodded. "Very well, have it your way. Haku, deal with those two boys, but be careful of their eyes they are a part of Konaha's Uchiha clan. I'll take on Hayate Gekko." 

Haku nodded with an undistinguishable expression due to her face hidden behind the fake Kiri oinin and ran toward her targets with senbon in hand as Hayate and Zabuza stood and readied their swords. 

_This willl be fun_. The demon thought. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Naruto was very bored, using water mirrors to see what he looked like from behind, when he suddenly received the memory of a dispersed shadow clone. _Interesting_.

He dispersed all his clones except one, who he sent inside to watch the family, while he jumped down onto the dock and waited. Sure enough, the awaited person arrived soon. 

It was a man with white hair which he kept in a ponytail behind his head. His slashed Kiri headband signified his missing ninja status, and to complete his look he wore a knee length white cloak, on the back of which he kept a katana, all over white ninja pants and white ninja sandals. He noticed Naruto and eyed him carefully.

"I would assume you are here to protect them, young man?" 

"Yes, I am. And you're here to kill them?" 

"I would never kill a civilian or any helpless enemy, but my employer's orders are that I at least take them hostage. Usually not something I would do either, but I have no choice." 

Naruto was puzzled. This was hardly what he had expected. He had assumed that anyone who worked for Gato must be a blood-thirsty, cold-blooded killer. "If you don't want to do the things he orders, why do you work for Gato? You don't seem like the money hungry type." 

"You're correct, I don't like that man at all, nor am I a glutton for money or power, but I seek refuge from Kiri oinin. My entire clan was killed in the bloodline purge, so now I wander from place to place, seeking refuge where I can find it. Unfortunately, the only place I have found any kind of permanence is with that despicable man." 

Naruto was legitimately very sad to hear that. "I'm sincerely sorry for you. It's unfortunate that things must be this way." 

"I agree." There was a pause. 

"If you wouldn't mind, I would like to have this battle elsewhere, so to avoid collateral damage as much as possible," Naruto finally spoke up. 

"I'd have it no other way," the man responded. 

Once they had both shunshined a very good distance away where there was nothing but ocean for a couple of miles, Naruto spoke once again. 

"I am Naruto Uzumaki. What's your name?" 

The man bowed. "It is a pleasure to meet you Naruto. My name is Hideki Manju, aka the Blank Ninja of Kiri. Although you are young, I sense that your aura is powerful. This will be enjoyable," the white-haired man finished as he drew his katana. 

"So it shall." And with that Naruto drew his own katana and the two readied for battle. Leaving both katana's reflecting the sunlight off the steel like the unsettling ocean underneath their feet roaring in anticipation for the fight.

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**Rate and Review.  
**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Making Waves Part 3**

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_(At the Incomplete Nami no Kuni Bridge)_

Once they were a good distance from their sensei, Itachi and Shisui wasted no time in launching their attack. They attempted to overwhelm the girl with double-teamed kenjutsu, but she kept them at bay with her senbon, and despite all their efforts they couldn't get within range unless they wanted to suffer a lethal hit from one of those senbon; even their elemental clones were rendered useless. So they moved on to the next thing.

They both sheathed their katanas and put together some hand signs, keeping their enemy on the defensive: "**Katon: Fireball Jutsu**," they yelled simultaneously. The sheer size of them both left Haku unable to run, but she had already been forming her own hand signs: "**Suiton: Water Wall.**" Her elemental advantage neutralized the attack and left a large amount of steam in the area to augment the opacity of the pre-existing fog.

"Damn, she's got the elemental advantage," Shisui said as they planned their next attack.

Itachi smirked. "Or does she?" Shisui grinned as he realized what his cousin meant.

Meanwhile Haku had taken no such breaks. "**Suiton: Exploding Water Colliding Wave.**" A very large amount of water began rushing toward the two boys at high speed out of Haku's mouth, so Shisui prepared a defense. "**Douton: Mud Wall**," he yelled. A sizeable wall formed in front of them which was very effective in stopping the attack, as water is weak to earth. But the follow-up attack surprised them both.

"**Hyoton: Freezing Wave**," their foe exclaimed. With blinding quickness, the water that had gotten around the wall and was now at their feet had frozen up. Shisui was able to sense the attack and jump out, but Itachi wasn't so lucky. Once it got to his feet, he couldn't move, and now it was creeping up his legs. "I can handle this," he yelled to his partner. "Go get her!"

Shisui nodded, having faith in his friend. While Itachi focused all the fire chakra he could into his lower body, since he couldn't exactly just aim a fireball at himself, Shisui formed an earth clone, threw three shuriken and performed a familiar jutsu. "**Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" In a flash, the three he had thrown became one hundred.

"**Hyoton: Ice Sphere**," Haku answered, and now a dome formed around her made of ice as hard as steel. _Damn, she saw my attack coming. I had been expecting a water wall so my clone could flank her while she was occupied with my attack. But with this dome she's covered from all sides._

Meanwhile the fellow kekkai genkai user had formed her own plan. _He's by himself; now is my chance._

Haku rushed out of the sphere with great speed, so Shisui dropped into a defensive stance, but when she stopped just before meeting him he was caught off guard. "**Hyoton: Hiden: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals**," she said gently.

Suddenly before the Uchiha's eyes, a dome made of ice mirrors surrounded him, and they all bore the image of Haku. "I am sorry it has come to this, but now you will die. I have killed A rank jounin with this technique. It is indisputably unbeatable, and cannot be broken from the outside or the inside."

_Well, fuck, _the Uchiha thought.

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Hayate and Zabuza had begun their battle with a long-range ninjutsu battle. However, it was clear to the Konoha nin that he would never win this way, so he closed the space between them and began a kenjutsu fight.

The two jounin were evenly matched from the beginning. Hayate feared he would be overwhelmed by the sheer size and power of the Demon's sword, but what he lacked in strength he made up in speed.

Zabuza swung the sword horizontally at his foe's head, but Hayate ducked easily and made a slash at the Demon's stomach. However, the Kiri nin showcased his immense strength as he managed to bring his own sword back to block the counter attack.

Hayate attempted a leg sweep, but he jumped over it and returned with a kick of his own, which the Konoha nin managed to grab with his open hand. Now that his opponent was in the air and vulnerable, he tried to kick the grabbed leg in such a way that it would shatter his femur, but in a show of extreme athleticism the Demon picked up his other leg and blocked Hayate's attacking leg. The resulting force caused them both to flip backwards and land on their feet.

"We're quite even in close range combat," a panting Zabuza said.

"Indeed," his equally tired opponent returned. "However, I have yet to use my signature move."

"Oh really?"

"Really. **Crescent Moon Dance.**" Suddenly Hayate rushed at him with his sword raised. As normal, Zabuza dodged the attack. But out of the corner of his eye, another figured appeared. Another _Hayate._

_A shadow clone? But when?_ The combination of the surprise of the shadow clone and their incredible teamwork soon overwhelmed the Demon. Just before he was about to get cut badly, he performed a substitution with a nearby stack of wood. Realizing his sudden disadvantage in close range, he decided to try to end this quickly.

"**Suiton: Water Dragon Jutsu,**" he yelled as a familiar-looking beast formed out of the nearby river. Hayate realized his disadvantage and settled with defending himself.

_I don't have enough chakra for a sufficient defensive jutsu. I really hope this works, _the sensei thought. Channeling a massive amount of wind chakra into his blade, he tried to cut the dragon in half, but he only half succeeded, as water splashed powerfully into his eyes, temporarily blinding him.

In that split second, Zabuza made his move. "**Suiton: Water Clone Jutsu!**"

Five more Zabuzas rushed at Hayate, who tried desperately to defend himself, but he was too late. He missed the real Demon who managed to get behind him and complete his hand signs.

"**Suiton: Water Prison!**"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Before Naruto could make his move against the white haired ninja, Kyuubi had a few words.

_**Just realize that if you use any inkling of my power, this will be over in seconds. I'm not telling you to use me, I'm not even asking you to, but just be aware. I understand that you want to test your own power, and so do I, but don't get so full of yourself that you end up getting killed.**_

_Got it. Thanks, buddy._

Before the bijuu could make a retort at the casual reference, Naruto launched his attack. "**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" he exclaimed. Around him popped up fifty shadow clones, and they all rushed at Hideki.

_So many shadow clones, _thought the rogue ninja. _He's even more impressive than I'd anticipated._

However, he began making quick work of the clones with his sword, since they were simply piling onto him in a totally uncontrolled manner. The ninja was decidedly unimpressed with the coordination abilities of his opponent. With his graceful style and flawless footwork, the clones had no chance of touching him.

With a glance past the attacking clones, Hideki noticed that the real Naruto was standing a ways away, just watching. _Is he analyzing my abilities? Not a bad strategy._

It wasn't long before every clone had been dispersed and the missing ninja ran at his true enemy. As he raised his sword and came at Naruto with great speed, he noticed the blonde forming hand signs. _Now to test his ninjutsu skills, _the boy thought.

"**Suiton: 500 Piranhas Jutsu!**" From underneath the boy, a large swarm of small piranhas made of water formed, baring their sharp teeth, and headed for Hideki. However, the swordsman was ready.

"**Suiton: Exploding Water Colliding Wave,**" he responded, which caused countless gallons of water to rush from his mouth at the blonde, effectively destroying the piranhas and forcing Naruto to defend himself as well.

"**Futon: Wind Scythe Jutsu,**" he yelled. This cut a gap in between the waves of water for Naruto to avoid the dangerous rapids. Soon the water had died down and the ocean under their feet settled. _So he's pretty good at ninjutsu as well. Fantastic._

In retaliation Naruto grabbed a few shuriken and channeled wind chakra into them. Once he had thrown them he performed one of his favorite jutsu. "**Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Three hundred shuriken, all enhanced in speed and cutting power by the wind chakra, sped at Hideki.

"**Suiton: Water Wall**," the man shouted, as he unknowingly fell right into Naruto's trap. Right as his vision was blinded, the blonde formed some hand signs which the man couldn't see.

"**Suiton: Underwater Teleportation**." In the blink of an eye, the Uzumaki dropped into the water and appeared next to a very surprised Hideki. Just in the nick of time before getting slashed by Naruto's katana, the man canceled his water wall and jumped away, only to look to his side to see the wall of shuriken still speeding at him. Some lightning-fast handsigns later and the man had his next jutsu: "**Suiton: Water Replacement Justu!**" he yelled in a panic.

Naruto had jumped back to avoid his own weapons, so he thought he had overwhelmed the man this time. However, he was disappointed a few seconds later when the man emerged from the water. The blonde noted that he had been very close- the man's ponytail had been cut by a shuriken. Shrugging off the frustration of this near-success, he shunshined just next to the recently-emerged man to launch a sudden kenjutsu attack.

Naruto began with a harsh diagonal slice from above the head, but the man's speed was impressive and he jumped away.

"You know, Hideki, you never told me about your kekkai genkai."

"Unfortunately, I was one of the many in my clan who never received the bloodline ablities. However, I got something much better- the Tenmon no Tsurug (Heaven's Gateway Blade)."

Now Naruto took a very close look at his foe's katana. It was longer than his own, by perhaps four inches. It was stunningly beautiful- the entire sword, including the blade, was a shiny, metallic blue. But as he watched, he began to channel chakra into it creating a strange aura surrounding the blade and it started to form a second blade branching off from the first, which was shorter and curved.

"This sword has belonged to my clan for centuries. The second blade it grows is for the sake of decapitation."

Naruto was enraptured. What an incredible weapon.

"It also has one more special ability, which you'll soon discover."

With this, the man rushed at his young foe with great speed and his blade aloft. As soon as the two swords engaged the boy was surprised at Hideki's style. _He isn't going for lethal strikes, but rather light cuts. How strange. _This style was unorthodox enough that the boy was finally unable to avoid a light cut on his wrist when he came down for a strike at his foe's neck.

The boy lost his breath as he felt like a ton of bricks was dropped on his back. The sheer force and suddenness of this weight forced him to drop to his knees. _What the hell is this? He barely nicked me!_

Despite his shock, he managed to struggle to get back up with his sword up, but he still felt very heavy. He continued his defense, but his arms were so heavy that he could barely hold them up. Seeing this Hideki quickly dashed across and delivered a deep cut along Naruto's shoulder. This time, his body was plastered to the oceans' surface. He had never felt so much weight, and now he could barely move.

"You see, Naruto," the Hideki began, "you started out this fight weighing, what, 100 or so pounds? Well every time someone suffers a cut from the Tenmon no Tsurug, that person's weight is doubled. So after the first cut, you weighed 200 pounds. Now you're at 400. You were an admirable opponent, but I'm afraid this battle is over."

_Uh, Kurama?_

_**Say no more.**_

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Shisui was very worried as he looked about at the many mirrors surrounding him, all containing an image of Haku.

"I have killed A-ranked jonin with this technique. You will die."

The young Uchiha ran for an exit but was cut off by a senbon which crossed in front of his face. He barely managed to bend back so it just scratched his cheek.

"There is no escaping," she continued. "And these mirrors are unbreakable."

_Itachi, where the hell are you?_

Suddenly, at blinding speed, several senbon flew toward him. Had it not been for his sharingan, he would certainly have been hit dead on, but he managed to just suffer some cuts on his arms and legs, although they were deep. Unfortunately, his kekkai genkai seemed to slow down time for him, but it didn't actually make him faster.

He quickly realized he need to try something, at least to buy time. Reasoning that fire would melt the ice, he pulled out a very familiar jutsu: "**Katon: Fireball Jutsu!**" Aiming it at the nearest image of Haku, he expected her to have to move or do something. But instead her image remained in the mirror, and after the fireball had dissipated, the Uchiha was disappointed to see that it had had no effect.

"Fine, I may not be able to attack you, but I can defend myself. **Doton: Earth Dome,**" he yelled emphatically. As a result, a clearly very strong dome made of rock appeared around him and protected him.

_He figured out the weakness. It's very unfortunate that he has an earth affinity. _As Haku analyzed the situation to determine how to get her opponent out from his protection, she was startled by a shout coming from nearby: "**Chidori!**"

Itachi had escaped from the ice surrounding his feet, and now a hand covered in lightning chakra slammed against one of the mirrors. Haku was terrified to see the mirror being successfully pierced and subsequently shattering to pieces. As a necessary result, the rest of the mirrors in the dome shattered as well, and now a stunned Haku was standing there, vulnerable, her masterpiece jutsu having crumbled around her.

Intending to catch the enemy off-guard, Itachi quickly followed up his **Chidori **by throwing several kunai laced with lightning chakra. In her shock, the Kiri native didn't move in time to dodge all of them as one hit her arm, numbing it entirely and rendering it useless.

Just after this attack, she turned to see many earth-chakra-charged kunai coming from behind, as Shisui had already dropped his earth dome. After these had left Haku staggering, with one hitting her leg directly and others slashing both her arms and the side of her stomach, the older cousin yelled, "Finish 5!" meaning that the twosome would use the fifth in their rather extensive list of teamwork finishes.

However, just as they were about to launch this attack, something occurring in the battle nearby gave all three pause.

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"**Water Prison Jutsu!**"

The real Zabuza, which had managed to get behind Hayate, had now trapped him in his infamous jutsu.

"Now this battle is over," he said confidently. As a clone began to form the hand signs that would finish the imprisoned Konoha ninja, the man inside smirked, which went unnoticed by the Demon.

However, Haku, who had happened to glance over in worry for her tou-san, did notice it, and immediately knew something was wrong. Looking behind Zabuza, she noticed something- it was subtle, but there was a slight distortion in the light. _A camouflage jutsu!_

Just as she prepared to shunshin over, Hayate's clone undid the camouflage jutsu he was so well known for and pulled back his sword to stab his A-rank foe and end this intense battle. But right when his sword should have been penetrating the Kiri traitor's back, something else got in the way- Haku.

Hayate was beyond shocked as he held his sword in the young girl's chest. Zabuza immediately turned around and what he saw rocked him to the core.

Slowly the Konoha jonin slid his sword out of his victim's body. Her body fell limp to the ground in front of her father, who caught her in his arms and held her close.

His daughter, his only love in the world, his very reason for breathing, was now gurgling and choking on her own blood right in front of him. And there was nothing he could do but cry and hold her close. Zabuza had never shed a tear in his life, except when his beautiful daughter was born. How appropriate it was that the only other time he would cry was at her death.

Shisui and Itachi now stood by their sensei, who all stood in front of the broken Kiri ninja, and none knew what to do. They all silently wished that he would somehow not take out his anger on them for vengeance, although they all prepared for it.

Suddenly they heard a voice from across the bridge. "Finally, that brat is dead. It was just strange how respectful she was all the time. It kind of irked me."

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_Uh, Kyuubi?_

_**Say no more. **_The fox set about diagnosing his container. _**It works through some sort of extremely fast-acting poison. Do you want some power too?**_

_No, just start to neutralize the poison._

_**Very well.**_

Instantly Naruto felt much lighter, almost normal again._ Just a few more moments and I can strike._ Hideki was now standing next to him, bringing his sword up to deliver the final blow. Deciding to maximize his element of surprise, the boy canceled the chakra flow which was keeping him afloat, so that he began to sink into the sea.

_Really? _Hideki thought with annoyance. _Why couldn't he just let me end it quickly? _As he prepared a jutsu to get the boy back up, he didn't notice the hand signs the blonde was now forming.

With a simple **Suiton** technique, the water underneath Naruto lifted him up back onto the surface, and this time kept him there. As he raised his sword once again to finally finish the job, he sensed something subtle, but strange.

Out of the water behind him popped four water clones of Naruto. They all came at the white haired ninja with swords at the ready and engaged in a relentless attack, which further confused the already surprised Kiri native.

The real Naruto, who had yet to get up, stabbed a kunai through his foe's leg now that he had turned around in the opposite direction to face the clones.

The man yelled out in pain, but had no time to focus on that or wonder how his sword's special ability had had no effect on Naruto as he realized he needed to create some space or he would be overwhelmed. He quickly threw his sword in the air and after some lightning-quick hand signs yelled, "**Suiton: Expanding Pillars Jutsu!**" Four pillars of water appeared and surrounded the man, steadily getting larger and larger and growing in speed, dispersing the clones and forcing the real Naruto to shunshin away. But the boy's assault was far from over.

The second the water pillars had dissipated, Hideki saw a sight that horrified him- dozens upon dozens of shadow clones launching straight out of the ocean like missiles firing off several kunai enhanced with wind chakra, causing their speed and cutting power to increase drastically. The shower of hundreds of these kunai all pointed directly at him did not worry the man, strangely enough. This was a simple escape. He let himself fall underwater and gathered chakra to prepare a powerful enough jutsu to fend off all those kunai. After all, he had seen how many clones there were.

But he had missed the most important one.

As he formed the hand signs calmly, he heard a cry from behind him in the water that alarmed him- "**Blubublub! (Rasengan!)"**

Without warning, Hideki felt an extremely painful sensation as a blue ball of violently rotating chakra slammed into his back. The force of the attack was enough to send him spiraling out of the water and into the air making him land harshly onto the shore of a small sandy reef.

As soon as he stopped, he knew the fight was over. He had a massive hole in his back which was bleeding profusely, and most of his spine had been totally obliterated. It was a miracle he was alive for the few seconds he was. The ninja used the last bit of his life force to keep himself breathing.

Soon Naruto had walked up next to the man. The boy kneeled down and looked at his foe with a sorry look in his eyes.

Hideki knew he didn't have much time to get his message across. "You are…honorable shinobi. take…Tenmon no Tsurug…you are worthy. Take care of it…and do not lose your ninja way." Slowly the honorable missing ninja's eyes closed, and he began to sink into the sea. Before he could sink too deep, Naruto picked the man up and set off to bury him on the reef.

Forming several shadow clones, he made the man a crude grave within a few minutes, but it was good enough. He made a headstone and marked it with,

_Hideki Manju_

_The most honorable of_

_shinobi, in life as in death_

_R.I.P._

Remembering that he already had a clone at the house to watch the family, Naruto raced to the bridge with tears in his eyes for a man he had met minutes earlier, with the Tenmon no Tsurug strapped to his back as a reminder of his opponent and first kill.

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All four of the ninja, still panting from fighting that just occurred, now with one holding his now-dead precious daughter in his arms, turned toward the sound of the voice. Just down the bridge, they all found it without much effort. A short, fat man with crazy hair and sunglasses who they all managed to recognize immediately, even though three of them had never seen him- Gato.

Behind him were at hundreds mercenaries excited to make them bleed and get their paycheck, none of whom were ninja. They all had cocky grins on their faces and were brandishing swords and war clubs. Gato continued his condescending speech.

"I had a feeling you'd fail, Zabuza. So I came with a little insurance. I also sent a little something to the bridge builder's house. Shouldn't be long before he gets here."

_Naruto, _all three Konoha ninja thought. They knew he could handle himself, but they worried nonetheless.

This whole time, the Demon of Kiri's rage had been building. He gently laid the body of Haku down and slowly walked toward his employer.

"This is all your fault. This is all because of you. She's dead because of you." The Kiri native had no obvious emotion on his face, just blankness. But looking into the man's eyes, one would find a blood thirst of otherworldly proportions. The man seemed to emanate rage and desire for vengeance. It was this imposing figure, no demon that sauntered toward Gato now.

As Zabuza was walking toward the short man, Hayate turned to his students and whispered to them to confirm Haku's death. They were approaching the body to do just that when they heard the shipping magnate's voice, coated with fear, addressing his mercenaries: "What are you waiting for? Get that traitor!"

The two Uchiha turned around and saw their recent foe being attacked by them all. Forgetting their order, they returned to their sensei. "We should help him."

Hayate nodded. "He clearly only fought us because he was forced to. He really cared for that girl, must have been his daughter. He's not just a blood thirsty, cold-blooded killer like the Bingo Book says. He gave us multiple chances not to surrender, he clearly didn't want to kill us. He does what he must to watch out for his family. And the girl sacrificed her life to save him. Clearly they cared greatly for each other. Gato is an inarguably evil man." He paused. "And you two would like to help?"

They nodded. Their pity for Zabuza was great. He had been used by Gato and now the only thing in life that mattered to him was gone, and it said something about him that he hadn't blamed and attacked them, the Konoha ninja.

"Let's go then."

As the Demon of Kiri was running through the huge crowd, slicing them to pieces with his enormous sword, he noticed the approaching Konoha ninja. _They aren't just strong and honorable shinobi. They're good people._

There were hundreds upon hundreds of mercenaries, so it would be a while. At one point, Itachi was about to get slashed from behind by a thug's sword, but Zabuza managed to push him out of the way just in time. Shisui immediately returned the favor by cutting down a ninja closing in on Zabuza. They didn't say anything, but a silent nod passed between the three of them.

In the midst of the fierce battling, all of a sudden a loud cry was heard. "**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" From out of nowhere, dozens of copies of everyone's favorite blonde, knuckle-headed ninja began raining down on the enemy, devastating them even more quickly now. All manner of jutsu of every element were being flung about the battlefield; it was a total slaughter.

Within minutes every one of Gato's mercenaries had been utterly eliminated. Now it was just the man standing alone at the edge of the bridge. Zabuza walked over and picked up the tiny, sweaty and extremely fearful man by his collar.

"You took away my only love in this world. Pay for your sins." And with that, the Demon sliced the man horizontally and decapitated him, letting Gato die a merciful death. _It's what Haku would have wanted._

As this whole Gato episode occurred, a man wearing a black cloak and glowing sharigan eyes appeared on the section of the bridge next to Haku, going totally unnoticed by all of the ninja. He leaned down and pressed his ear against her chest, and sure enough there was a heartbeat. _You've not outlived your usefulness yet. __**Body Inhabitation Jutsu.**_

Once Gato's head rolled, the two Uchiha suddenly felt a burst of air brush past them at frightening speeds. What they saw horrified them.

It was the girl, sprinting in their direction with inhumane speed, kunai at the ready. But what alarmed them most were her eyes.

_Sharigan! _Itachi and Shusui exclaimed in their minds

In a split second the bloody red eyes identified her target.

Before they could even yell his name, Haku had stabbed the kunai into Hayate's neck.

The man hit the ground and grabbed his throat as it bled out profusely, rolling around on the ground, Haku's body then just suddenly stopped and hit the ground awkwardly like a puppet that had its strings cut.

"Hey Sensei I am done over here! Come on guys let's get…" Was all Naruto said as he turned around to see his sensei and role model bleeding from his throat. "SENSEI!"

At that sudden outburst the Uchiha cousins and Zabuza snapped out of their shock and started to run toward the pair laying down in the pools of their blood. The three genin were immediately on their knees by their teacher's side frantically trying to stop the bleeding but they could nothing but watch as the life left their sensei's eyes.

"Shit sensei stay with us!" Naruto yelled into Hayate's face as he tore off a part of his jacket to stop the bleeding.

"Naruto! Naruto Stop! We can't do anything!" Shisui said trying to pull Naruto away from Hayate.

"What is wrong you bastards we have to save Hayate-sensei!" Naruto roared as he turned to see both Uchihas with tears rolling out of their sharigan eyes. Naruto could only curse himself for taking too long to get to the bridge and held on to his sensei's hand as he began to pass away. Then they heard their role model begin his last words while he slipped away.

"(cough)…(cough)…Thanks…I always…loved being with you guys…" Hayate suddenly coughed violently spewing blood in the rookie genins' faces and fell limp to the side as Naruto let go of his hand.

Suddenly the two Uchiha could not hold back anymore and began shacking violently blaming themselves when then suddenly looked at each other with a horrified expression as they realized something- _we never checked the body. _They didn't know what to do. They just silently stared at their dead sensei; guilt racked their young bodies. He was dead and it was all their fault. All those years of being taught by that man they cared for so dearly. And now he was gone. And it was all because of them.

In the dead silence of the moment, two pairs of sharingan eyes both began to change shape.

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The trip back to Konoha was utterly silent. Naruto had sealed their sensei's body in a scroll so it could be properly buried in Konoha. His prize, the Tenmon no Tsurug, was strapped to his back proudly. But he didn't care at the moment. The most surprising development was the fourth member the genin team now had with them.

Zabuza now had no purpose in life. His precious Haku-chan was dead and now buried in a hill over watching the enormous bridge where seemingly everything changed for him, so what was he to do? After Hayate's death, he decided to surrender himself to the Konoha genin. This way he could repay them, at least somewhat, and perhaps even start a new life in Konohagakure. It's what Haku would have wanted, after all.

The genin, meanwhile, were in despair. They had loved Hayate, he had taught them nearly everything they knew, and now he was gone, and in such an unheroic way, being stabbed in the back _after the fight was already over. _The lack of honor was…indescribably unsavory. Kami really did have a sense of irony, and oh, was it cruel.

It was in this manner that the group traveled back to their home village. They were approaching Hi no Kuni when they ran into some nondescript old travelers in the road. Zabuza looked at them curiously while the genin thought nothing of it.

But this was why they were genin and he was a jonin.

"Ambush!" he yelled which startled Team 7 but they were prepared.

In the blink of an eye, eight more Iwa ANBU appeared next to the two old people, who dispelled the genjutsu.

"What a surprise, seeing the Demon of Kiri here of all places. You've still got that sharp eye, Zabuza Momochi. Now hand over the Namikaze brat before we're forced to put an end to all of you." The leader of the ANBU squad said as his katana gleamed in the mid-day sun giving a not so subtle message that none were leaving alive.

Quickly stepping in between the ANBU and the genin, the ex-Kiri ninja addressed them. "Get out of here as fast as you can right now. I'll hold them off for as long as possible."

He was surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for your willingness to sacrifice yourself for us, Zabuza-sama, but I should really handle this," Naruto said seriously as he began to calmly walk toward the ANBU with no doubt in his stride.

"Naru-"

"Just trust me right now. I will handle it." Naruto's eyes pierced Zabuza's telling him that he was dead serious, so he relented, although hesitantly.

All the Iwa ANBU carefully eyed their target. What trick could he possibly have under his sleeve?

Naruto, having stepped in front, briefly turned to his two friends. "Itachi, Shisui, I'm sorry for what you're about to see. I promise you I will explain later, and if you hate me I totally understand."

Turning away from his very puzzled friends, the boy established his link to his bijuu.

_I want all three tails, Kyuubi._

_**Are you sure about this, Naruto? What will they think?**_

_No more secrets especially now with…_

_Anyways nothing changes. I always put their safety ahead of their opinion of me and that will never change. There's no way we can face ten ANBU without suffering at least some casualties, and we certainly aren't deserting Zabuza-sama._

_**As you wish.**_

Suddenly a very powerful sense of darkness and hatred permeated the air. Everyone in the area was shocked to see a cloak of red chakra form around the boy and form fox ears and three tails. His fingernails grew longer and his eyes turned blood red with slits in them as he now was on all fours ready to pounce. The ANBU panicked.

"He's a monster! Kill him!"

_Too late. _Suddenly giant red chakra arms shot out from the cloak at amazing speed aimed at each of the Iwa shinobi. Seven of them were grabbed because of sheer shock and the speed of them, and were crushed like flies instantly. Three managed to get away, but in the blink of an eye, Naruto appeared in front of two of them and punched them both in the face simultaneously, so hard that their skulls were crushed and large chunks of their brains could be seen flying out of back of their heads.

Now there was only one ANBU left. He was so seized with fear and panic as Naruto walked slowly and menacingly toward him that he took out a cyanide pill to take so he wouldn't be captured or brutally killed, but Naruto batted it away with a chakra arm. "No, no, no, you won't be getting away that easy." He said as he closed the distance between himself and the last member of the team sent to kill him. The blonde took out a tag with the kanji for "sleep" on it and placed it on his prey's head. Once the man was passed out, he undid a scroll (separate from the one for Hayate) and sealed him inside.

"We'll take him back to the village for interrogation." Naruto said somewhat quietly not ready for the expected ending of his longtime friendship with his Uchiha brothers.

Zabuza was wide-eyed, which Naruto wasn't surprised by, but what really surprised him were the reactions of his Uchiha friends. They were _smiling._

"Called it!" They both exchanged an enthusiastic high-five. Seeing the dumbfounded expression of their Uzumaki friend, who had by now ended the use of the Kyuubi chakra, they decided to explain.

"Dude, it was totally obvious that you're the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. You chakra is ridiculously gigantic and we could both see the red chakra flowing through you when you fight. Your birthday is the same day as the Kyuubi attack. Your dad was the Hokage? C'mon, that's too easy. Of course we didn't want to say anything, just in case we were wrong, but we pretty much knew all along," Shisui explained with a proud smile.

Naruto was shocked. "And? Do you hate me?"

Both Uchiha gave him a weird look. "Why?"

"Because of what I am."

They both grew a serious look and walked closer to their friend. Itachi spoke this time. "Listen, we love you bro. We know exactly what you are. You're Naruto Uzumaki, the greatest friend we could ask for. Even if you are ugly and stupid. And weak as hell. And kind of annoying sometimes. And really awkward with girls to the point you have to make up imaginary girlfriends. And-"

"Ok, Itachi, don't ruin this moment."

Naruto had some tears in his eyes as he hugged the most important people in his life. Naruto then backed off and wiped his tears away as he suddenly grew mad.

"Hey! What are you talking she is totally real! You guys are just jealous."

"Hey Itachi do you remember her?" Shisui turned to Itachi with a fake pensive look ignoring an exasperated Naruto. Itachi just shook his head as he then suddenly had a knowing smirk on his face.

"Oh her…I thought she was one of your fangirls?"

"No I would have _definitely_ remembered short dark hair and dark eyes. You sure she was not one of the girls all over you in the academy?" Shisui could now not fight off the grin that was plastered on his face.

"She is and never was a fangirl!" Naruto was now ready to beat the crap out of the Uchihas. Itachi was meanwhile counting off the girls in their class with his fingers.

"Yui, Kia, Subaru…oh now I got her, she was the one that after graduation that jumped me and started grinding on my..." Was all Itachi could say before Naruto could not hold back his rage and jumped at both of them ready to beat them all the way back to the village.

"YOU TEMES!"

Zabuza was touched by the whole thing and was chuckling by the end. _Are you watching, Haku? These boys carry your love and good heart. They will carry on your will. I swear that I will always protect them._

The rest of the trip home went by with much better spirit. Two recently passed souls looked down from the heavens with bright smiles.

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**Rate and Review.**


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**Aftermath**

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In the Hokage's office stood four figures, clearly all terribly exhausted and drenched from the unrelenting downpour outside. Hiruzen sat at his desk with wide eyes as his pipe hung loosely from his mouth. He was…surprised to say the least. It was a dark day for Konoha as well as a confusing one now that Team 7 had given their extensive mission report.

"I will take the scroll with Hayate's body as well as the Iwa ANBU," said the Sarutobi grimly. "I will see to it that he receives a proper funeral and burial, while the enemy will be handed over to Ibiki. Your sensei was a great shinobi and a great man, loyal to his village. I will have to tell Yugao…"

"Actually, jiji-san, we've decided that we will," interjected Naruto. "As Hayate-sensei's students and the ones that watched him go, we feel it's our responsibility to tell her."

Seeing the serious looks on their faces and the nods from Shisui and Itachi, the old man conceded. "Very well. Now about you, Zabuza Momochi…"

In a sincere show of humility, the ex-Kiri ninja got on his knees and bowed lowly before the Hokage. "I willingly submit myself to any kind of interrogation, torture or imprisonment you wish to put me under. I will tell you all I know about Kiri and anything else you may wish to know. All I ask is that you give me safe haven, and if I may be so bold, I request that I may train these children and be their sensei."

Everyone in the room was shocked at this. Submit to interrogation? Be their sensei? Confusion permeated the minds of everyone in the room.

"I will send for Ibiki, because that information will be valuable, however, we will certainly not be torturing anybody that is willing to freely give information as that is not the way of this village. Your cooperation will necessarily give you safe haven. The second request…will be much more difficult to grant. I will need to convene the council in order to decide whether you should be accepted as a Konoha shinobi, and given your track record, which is less than stellar, that could be an issue. But I will do all I can, I assure you."

"Thank you very much, Hokage-sama. I will not forget your kindness."

"Of course. Now you three, be on your way. You certainly deserve the rest. I'm very sorry about Hayate. He will be sorely missed."

The three brothers drearily nodded to their Hokage, then to Zabuza and exited the room. Soon they were outside the building and walking abjectly about the village, which now resembled a ghost town thanks to all the people who had sought shelter to avoid the dark skies and heavy downpour. The boys were indifferent that they were being drenched and were then chilled to the bone by the accompanying powerful gusts of wind. All they could think about was their sensei, the second father, the caring teacher, the beloved shinobi. Like the raindrops falling from the sky and hitting the ground, Hayate had lived a lovely life, but in the end it was just like so many others and it ended far too soon.

This hit Shisui particularly hard as he thought back to a conversation he had had with his other sensei.

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_(Flashback: Months earlier)_

_Shisui and Obito sat in their normal training ground, taking a break._

"_This world is a cursed and evil place, Shisui. You know this, yes?" the ANBU said, totally randomly._

_The younger Uchiha simply nodded as he looked about at the tranquil scenery surrounding him. "Looks are so deceiving," he sagely observed. "Like that finch over there. It appears to be just a peaceful, beautiful part of nature, innocence personified, when in reality it is no better than a ruthless lion, waiting for the proper time to strike and devour its prey."_

_As if on cue, the small, beautiful bird, with its golden breast and burnt orange beak, swooped down from its perch in a mighty oak tree to snatch a worm off the ground._

"_The survival instinct is an inherent part of nature, and being that humans are animals, we carry this same instinct within us as well," the boy continued. "Compassion is a luxury that very few can afford."_

_The older man was obviously impressed. "You carry wisdom well beyond your years. You know, then, that building connections to others will only lead to pain and sorrow?"_

_At this Shisui looked into the distance thoughtfully for a second before answering. "In the shinobi world, the only reality is that your loved ones, especially when they are shinobi themselves, will very likely die. But the pain of never loving or being loved, in constant fear of the possibility of the ones you love dying, is so much greater."_

_As Obito pondered his young pupil's response, a certain blonde-haired ninja and his black-haired accomplice came around the corner into view. "Shisui, my NIG! There's a bunch of hot babes down at the lake and Itachi and I were gonna work our 'magic'. Can you come?"_

_Shisui looked eagerly over to his sensei, who couldn't resist as he thought of himself at that age. "You've done well today, go ahead."_

"_Thank you, Obito-sensei!" exclaimed the boy as he eagerly ran off to meet his friends, leaving his teacher to ponder all he had said._

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Now the words his sensei had said resurfaced to slap him in the face. When Shisui had said those words, he didn't really have any idea what he was saying. He had always assumed that it would affect other people, but never _him. _But here he was, mourning the loss of his sensei, someone who he never imagined losing.

Without meaning to, or perhaps subconsciously, the group eventually stumbled onto their usual training ground, the one they used with Hayate. Their eyes gazed emptily on the field, which was now covered in mud from all the rain. Without a thought they walked out to a very large oak tree which was rife with marks from all manner of weapons and jutsu, but was still standing. Naruto began kicking the tree, grunting from the amount of force he was giving.

The two Uchiha silently stared at their friend for a minute. Soon Shisui began kicking too, and before long Itachi joined as well. They felt the bruises forming on their feet but didn't care. They were letting out their pain.

Some distance away, a figure crouched and watched them, going unnoticed by the three. His long, white mane was drenched and matted against his back. Jiraiya worried about his adopted son and his friends. _I want to bring them home, but that might not be best right now. They just need some space. _So the Toad Sage disappeared with a puff of smoke.

After what felt like hours, the grunts coming from Naruto began to be choked with tears, and not much longer after that the boy collapsed into a heaping mess of tears. Waterfalls fell from both of his eyes as all the agony he had been holding in over the past few days came out all at once. No, not just the past few days- all these years, all the nightmares coming from the fox, the pain of never knowing his parents, everything he had ever dealt with, all poured into this.

The two Uchiha watched their brother emptily. "He's gone," Naruto choked out. "He's gone."

Suddenly Shisui grabbed him by the collar and picked him up. "You know what, Naruto, you're right he is gone! But guess what? He's never coming back, ok? Crying isn't going to do anything, so stop being a bitch about it!"

The jinchurikii couldn't bear to look his friend in the eye, but the tears continued to fall despite his shame. He knew Shisui was right.

"Shisui, back off," Itachi warned his cousin. As the called-out cousin turned to face him, Itachi saw that his sharingan was active, but it was no normal sharingan- it was a black four-point pinwheel, set against the usual red background.

"Whatever," the older one countered, dropping his blonde friend harshly and speeding away on his own. Filing away the thought of his cousin's eyes for later, Itachi approached Naruto.

"You're not being a bitch, Naruto. We all have different ways of dealing with grief, yours happens to be crying and his happens to be lashing out. Don't be angry with him. We will all move on eventually."

Naruto was shocked. "How can you say something like that? That we'll just 'move on'? Didn't you care about him at all?" he accused.

Itachi was offended and his harsh look showed it. "Don't you _**dare **_say I didn't care for Hayate-sensei. I loved him just as much as you and Shisui did. I'm hurting too, but I'm thinking about it in a much different way than you. Just think about what he would have wanted for us, and you'll come to peace with it." After silently gazing at his friend with pity evident in his eyes, Itachi went off to find his cousin, leaving Naruto in a sobbing heap, his tears swallowed up by the unrelenting rain.

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"The only upside to this fiasco is that Ansu died in the fight and I didn't have to kill him. Raito, you're the new commander of Iwa ANBU," Onoki said, clearly having just recovered from a violent fit of rage.

"Thank you, Tsuchikage-sama. I will not fail you."

_That's what they all say, _the old man thought tiredly. _I'm getting far too old for this. I've gone through what, 4 ANBU commanders in the past month? Tiresome indeed. _"That is good to hear, Raito. Dismissed."

With that the new commander melted into the floor and disappeared without a trace. Onoki rubbed his head and called for his assistant to bring his migraine pills. _Tiresome indeed._

Suddenly a girl with short, black hair sporting the standard attire of the Iwa-nin consisting of a red uniform with her right sleeve missing and a lapel over her right leg, fishnet tights and a skirt over them popped in without a knock. Onoki spoke first.

"Kurotsuchi, how many times have I told you to knock before coming in here?! It's disrespectful to just barge in like that!" he yelled with righteous anger at his granddaughter.

"Yeah, whatever gramps. I had to rush over here as soon as I heard about the ANBU commander and his whole squad getting slaughtered when they tried to kill the Yellow Flash's kid. What was up with that?"

The old man rubbed his head again and took another two pills. Everytime he heard that name, the Yellow Flash, it required a pill, and every time he interacted with his granddaughter in any way, it required a pill. _So damn tiresome._

"Well, Kurotsuchi," he responded after downing the medication, "we have no earthly idea what the cause of death could have been, as the bodies were utterly mutilated and burned in some weird way. All we know is that every drop of blood at the scene was ours and not theirs. It could not have been more one-sided. It also seems that they've captured one of our own."

"Wow, sounds rough. Ready to give up that hat to me yet, gramps?"

The Tsuchikage couldn't help but chuckle at her passion. "Not quite yet, not quite yet."

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After a few hours, Naruto and his Uchiha friends had come back together. Despite Itachi's best efforts, there was still a bit of tension between Naruto and Shisui, as they were both proud people, but it was nothing they wouldn't forget before long. Besides, what they had to do was much more important than any kind of temporary animosity between them.

They all stood before a normal-looking apartment door. After sharing a nod, Shisui knocked on the door a few times. After about a minute, a beautiful young lady with vibrant purple hair answered the door and her eyes landed on the young ninja.

"Oh hey, guys! You're back from your mission? Come on in, it's pouring outside."

The three brothers shuffled into the apartment, squelching all the way, but didn't sit, as they sensed that they wouldn't be there for long. Meanwhile, Yugao continued her questioning as she took a seat on a plush couch.

"So did you guys just get back?"

"Yes, just a few hours ago."

Yugao was disturbed by the somber mood of her guests before she finally asked the question she had been wondering since they arrived. "Hey…where's Hayate-kun?" she asked with a suddenly serious mood.

Her answer came in the form of silence and the boys looking down at their feet.

Yugao's eyes got wide and she put her hands over her mouth as realization struck her. Immediately she felt the tears coming on, and she wanted to be comforted. She got up and shared a group hug with the boys, who were surprised but accepted it happily.

They felt somewhat weird at first, as she just held them close and cried over them, but soon they started to break down too. Naruto went first after her, unable to hold it back any longer. He had been hesitant to cry in front of everyone again but the grief of the moment overwhelmed him. Then Itachi, to his own surprise, felt his chin shake and the tears begin to fall, and soon they were coming in full force as well. After watching his cousin go, and feeling the gravity of the moment, Shisui released his tears, despite his best efforts. So there stood four shinobi of Konoha, holding each other and bawling their eyes out. The memory of Hayate weighed heavily upon them all.

It took a very long time before Yugao broke it up and was able to hold back her crying. She backed up and took a seat on the chair, while all the boys wiped their eyes and tried to pull themselves together. A minute or two later, she resumed her questions.

"How did he go? I have to know."

"An evil man named Gato was monopolizing the economy of the Nami no Kuni. Zabuza-sama had been working for this man, but after his daughter died, he abandoned his mission and turned on Gato. Hayate-sensei decided that we go beyond the scope of the mission and help Zabuza-sama since he was an honorable shinobi, as well as save the people of Nami no Kuni, but didn't want us to risk ourselves, so he had us stay behind. While he was taking on Gato's countless thugs, he was overwhelmed," Itachi quickly and convincingly lied. Naruto and Shisui glanced at him but said nothing.

"Oh that's so like Hayate…he was always so kind and caring, even for people he didn't know. I'm so glad he died so honorably."

"So are we." There was a bit of an awkward silence before Shisui spoke up.

"We should probably be going now," Shisui mumbled and started for the door.

"Wait, I want to tell you one thing." She paused as she thought through exactly what to say. "Hayate was a great man. We will all miss him. All of us loved him, in different ways obviously, but we loved him nonetheless. That said, please don't blame yourselves for what happened. Hayate would have wanted us all to live the happiest lives possible. This is the best way to honor his memory- think of what he would have wanted for us and try our best to do exactly that."

Itachi nodded, as he had already reached this conclusion, while the other two boys thought deeply about this advice. "Thank you very much, Yugao," Itachi responded after some time. "This helped a lot."

Now the boys went to the door and opened it, dismayed to see that the rain still fell just as heavily as it had when they entered. With a final goodbye, they stepped out.

Yugao watched softly as they exited. _No, thank you. Thank you for caring for Hayate as much as I did._

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Although none of them would dare admit it, that had been exactly what they needed- closure and an answer to the question of how to move on.

"Alright guys, you know what this means," Naruto addressed his friends. "We just have to train way harder and get way stronger so that we can honor Hayate-sensei's legacy and protect our loved ones so that this never happens again!"

"Damn right!" the two Uchiha chorused trying to move beyond the pain together as a team…no family.

"Hayate-sensei might be gone, but his spirit- his students, his ideals, his beliefs- are still here with us, and it's our duty to walk in them and pass them on."

"Great point, Naruto-kun. We'll always have each other too," Itachi added.

Shisui smiled. His cousin was right- they would never abandon each other. "Well, it's been a while. We should probably all head home now," he said.

"Yeah, you're right. See you guys later." Bro hugs were exchanged and Naruto headed off to see his tou-san.

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Jiraiya was still wondering exactly how he should handle the situation with Naruto. Hiruzen had sent for him to let him know; unfortunately, the old man had no advice for his old student on what to say, or what _not _to say. As the sage was still meditating on this, the boy casually strolled through the door.

"Tou-san, I'm home!" he called.

_Shit, what do I say? _"Hey, buddy!" He leaned down and hugged the blonde. "How you holding up?"

"Did you hear?"

"Yeah, the old man told me…listen, Naruto-kun-"

"Actually, can I talk first?"

This worried Jiraiya. "Sure you can."

"At first when we got back, it really hit me that he was gone forever. I was in despair, I didn't know what to do. Then the three of us went to talk to Yugao. She really helped us realize where to go from here. I'll always miss Hayate-sensei and wish he was around, but I'm not going to sit around and just wish things were different. I'm going to get way stronger so that I can protect my loved ones so this never happens again, and I can change this world for the better."

The Toad Sage was very surprised. He had never imagined Naruto would be so mature and wise about this. _I'll have to thank Yugao…_ "I'm very proud of you, kid. I know Minato-kun would be too," he said with a smile.

Naruto beamed. Any mention of his biological father being proud or happy made him incredibly happy. The Yondaime had always been his biggest hero.

"Well tou-san, I'm really tired, so I'm going to sleep. I'll tell you all about what happened tomorrow."

"Alright, kid, see you tomorrow."

Both father and son left with pleasant smiles. Jiraiya noticed on Naruto's back an ornate and beautiful sheath holding a katana, which he could tell by the hilt was of the highest quality as well, all of which was unfamiliar to him. He was about to voice a question but stopped himself. _He'll tell me tomorrow._

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Shisui and Itachi stood before the Uchiha clan head and Itachi's father, Fugaku, as well as Shisui's father and Fugaku's brother, Riyuki. A young Sasuke sat in a corner with stars in his eyes after just having been regaled with the magnificent adventures that his two heroes had experienced. The two men maintained a stoic composure.

"I am sorry about your sensei. It sounds like Zabuza is an honorable shinobi, not to mention a very strong one. He will have my vote for him to become a ninja when we have the council meeting tomorrow," Fugaku began.

"Thank you, tou-sama, for supporting Zabuza-sama. In the matter of Hayate-sensei, we know that it is the way of the shinobi world. We are now far more motivated to increase our excellence as shinobi. The intensity of our training will increase greatly."

Riyuki nodded. "That is very good to hear. It is a great quality to be able to turn a negative experience into something positive. Go on now and rest."

"Arigatou," the two boys said unanimously as they bowed.

Sasuke caught Itachi on the way out. "Nii-san, will you help me with my shuriken jutsu?"

Itachi chuckled and poked his little brother's forehead. "Sorry, Sasuke-kun, but I'm exhausted. Maybe next time."

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_(Next day)_

Zabuza Momochi stood in the center of the Konoha council room. All eyes were on him as many civilian councilors and clan heads, along with Hiruzen and Jiraiya, had taken their seats.

"Glad you could all make it," the Hokage began. "Today we will be voting in the matter of whether or not to admit Zabuza Momochi, formerly of Kirigakure, as an active jonin of Konoha. Allow me to begin with how he happened to arrive here." The old man proceeded to relate all the events of the Wave mission, making sure to stress the parts where the missing nin went out of his way to protect the genin. However, he left out the part about the Iwa ANBU as he wasn't quite ready to drop that bomb on the council.

Once he had finished, all the council members were a bit less noticeably afraid of him. The man's reputation clearly preceded him. It was this very reputation that led Shibi Aburame to inquire, "The Bingo Book is rife with mentions of atrocities that you've committed, Zabuza. Do you have a logical reason for those?"

"I assure you that all these have been 100% fabricated. After my two assassination attempts of Yagura, the twisted Mizukage, and subsequent desertion of the village, those were added to my page in order to encourage other villages to distrust and hunt me down as well. The only thing I am sad to say is, indeed, accurate, was the academy ritual, if I may, of killing one's own classmates. However, those days are far behind me, on top of the fact that I was forced to."

The Aburame clan head nodded, pleased with how very logical the response had been.

"Any more questions?" the Hokage gauged the room. Those present shook their heads no. "Very well, it is time we put this to a vote. All in favor of admitting Zabuza-san as a shinobi of this village?"

All the hands of the clan heads shot up immediately, along with Danzo's, who just wanted another strong ninja in the village. A few of the civilian councilors raised them as well, but the rest of them were still too scared of the muscular man. Homura and Koharu kept their hands down as well, as they still couldn't trust the man. Jiraiya's vote and Hiruzen's own sealed the deal.

"With a majority over two-thirds vote, Zabuza Momochi is now a jonin sensei of Konohagakure. Congratulations, Zabuza, you are now acting sensei of Team 7."

Zabuza bowed to his new Hokage. "Thank you so much, Hokage-sama. I swear to serve you unwaveringly until death, and to train my team to the best of my abilities."

"I appreciate your loyalty, Zabuza-san. Now go put those words into action."

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**Hey everyone! I haven't left any AN in a long time, just because I haven't felt the need, but NOW I DO.**

**Coming up very soon (probably not the next chapter, but the one after) is the BEST AND AWESOMEST CHUNIN EXAM ARC IN THE HISTORY OF NARUTO FAN FICTION! I won't give everything away, but here's what I can say:**

**1. It will be a _complete_ exam,**** including a winner at the end of the finals!**

**2. It will be the most exciting and epic finals yet, with easily the strongest opponents ever imagined! Granted, some serious stretching of the AU will be required for this, but don't worry, it'll be totally worth it (and it won't sacrifice the plot of the story.) In any case, this will be a MASSIVE upgrade from some Naru-Hina-Kiba-Shino final or something like that. I mean, come on, really? Couldn't pick a more boring lineup there.**

**3. Not only will it be the most epic and exciting chunin exam arc, but far and away the funniest! I have BarelySage (the funniest author on this profile for sure, and if you ask me one of the funniest authors, period, although his work ethic may be a bit lacking) on board to help me a lot with this. Our heroes will trash talk CONSTANTLY, and it will be the most accurate and condescending trash talk you can dream of! All your favorite and least favorite characters will be bashed nonstop in the funniest way possible!**

**In conclusion, I'm very excited to write this arc and see your comments.**

**Speaking of Sage, he recently redid the second chapter of his fic, **_**Adventures of an ANBU Trainee,**_** and now it's even better. Please check that out. Also take a look at my other project, **_**Ill-Fated**_**, if you're looking for a darker, more thought-provoking fic.**

**Rate and Review. **


	11. Chapter 10

**Quickly gather the children! What why madman?! IT'S DOUBLE FEATURE FRIDAY! That means that not only is there one upload but TWO as in BOTH authors have uploaded new chapters to their work. This week it is Black Rain Falls by BarelyGhost: "If those fan-girls think they can be ninjas then they could suck this long dick!" and Adventures of an ANBU Trainee by BarelySage: "Listen guys I'm working two jobs; here and I have another job as a manager at Bed, Bath, and Beyond in the village, ok. I am doing that just to put a kid through the academy so he can explore his love of waffle crisps and become a DJ. So think guys just think." So check them out and enjoy the new chapters!**

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Chapter 10

**Perperations**

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_One week later_

Hiruzen had gathered the council once again. After speaking extensively with Jiraiya on the subject, they decided that it was time to inform the council of the Iwa ambush. As much as the Hokage dreaded it, he knew it had to be done.

So there sat the clan heads on one side of the room, the wealthy civilians on the other, Koharu and Homura and Danzo across from their kage and Jiraiya right next to him.

"So, Hiruzen," Danzo began, "Why have you gathered us here?"

The older man sighed. "Well, I'll get straight to the point. I there was an important issue that arose about a week ago. On the journey back from their mission in Nami no Kuni, Naruto and his team, along with Zabuza, were ambushed by Iwa ANBU. It seems that old Onoki heard that the Yellow Flash had a living son and couldn't bear for him to live."

As expected, there was immediately a vociferous uproar from everyone in the room, excluding the three elders.

"Silence!" the Sarutobi yelled, accompanying the shout with a strong burst of chakra which quickly quieted the room. One of the few who didn't flinch, the shinobi of darkness conducted the questioning.

"Let us begin with how they managed to fend off ANBU level ninja."

"There were five," came the convincing lie. "Zabuza dealt with three, while the boys eliminated one and captured the other."

All in the room were impressed with both the ex-demon and team 7.

"However," Hiruzen continued, "Ibiki was able to get virtually nothing out of the ninja, no doubt due to extensive torture training. Iwa have always been fans of that."

"That is unfortunate. It's quite clear to me that definitive action must be taken against Iwa. An assassination attempt on one of our shinobi is indubitably an act of war."

"I do not wish to launch a full-scale war as a result of this, and Jiraiya-kun agrees. The Chunin exams are taking place here in a month. There Onoki and I will try to come to an agreement. Perhaps he's become less stubborn in his old age," Hiruzen answered, knowing this very probably wasn't true.

"And if this attempt at an agreement should fail?"

"Preventative measures will be taken, starting right now, in fact. We need to make diplomatic efforts to gain military allies. The times are changing- the world is gearing toward war. Whether it is due to this issue or not, a war is coming. We will be ready."

"I agree with Hiruzen's decision, for now at least. The more powerful allies we have, the better," Homura stated. Koharu nodded.

"Thank you, Homura. Any more questions or opinions?" The old kage felt a pang of regret as in the blink of an eye the council room was again loud and chaotic. He rubbed his head and quickly realized this meeting would not be a brief one. _Then again, _he considered, _a brief council meeting is about as likely as Kakashi showing up early for something._

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Three hours later, the meeting was finally over. A massive stack of paperwork had somehow made its way onto Hiruzen's desk. The grandfather considered how strongly he despised this job sometimes. He was about to turn to Jiraiya (who was spending some time with his old sensei since he hadn't had time to talk to him since Naruto got back) to ask him about his next novel in order to get his mind off his paperwork when Shisui and Itachi were ushered into the room by a secretary.

"Hello, Itachi-kun, Shisui-kun. How are you holding up lately?" the Hokage asked, pity evident in his eyes.

"We're holding up," Itachi responded neutrally, but with a tinge of sadness. "Thank you for asking, Hokage-sama."

"Of course. Now I'm sure you didn't just come to say hello and distract an old man from his paperwork," Hiruzen said with a smile.

"No, we didn't. When we got back from the Nami mission, we discovered something." Both boys channeled chakra into their eyes. Sarutobi and the Toad Sage witnessed the red sharingan eyes of both boys change form. Shisui's was a four-point pinwheel while Itachi's was a three-point pinwheel.

"This can't be…" the old man whispered in disbelief.

"But it is. The Mangekyo sharingan," his pupil answered. "Since when?" continued the sage.

"We assume that they awakened when Hayate-sensei was…killed."

_That would make sense, _Hiruzen thought. "How amazing. You two are part of a very small handful in the history of the Uchiha clan to awaken these eyes."

"How many people know?" Jiraiya inquired. This was the type of thing that needed to be kept _well _under wraps.

"Only we four," Shisui answered. "Not even our fathers or Naruto know."

"Let's keep it that way for the time being. You two were very wise to come here first. If word of this were to get out, there are those who would stop at nothing to have that power."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. But there's something else."

"Oh?"

"In the secret meeting place of the Uchiha, there is a tablet. When read with the Mangekyo, it tells that too much use of it will render the wielder blind over time. The only way to combat these effects and gain an "eternal" Mangekyo sharingan is to receive the transplanted eyes of a close relative. Therefore…"

"Shisui and I would like to swap eyes."

Teacher and student raised their eyebrows.

"That's an interesting solution," Jiraiya mused outloud.

"There's only one person I know who could both handle such a delicate operation and be trusted with an S-class secret to ensure that it is successful," the Hokage said already dreading of trying to bring her back for this operations.

"Tsunade-hime. But how will we convince her?"

"I don't know, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I trust you both as very loyal shinobi of Konoha and therefore do not mind you having this immense power. However, Madara and Izuna Uchiha were driven to great evil because of these eyes, and are now known as the most notorious traitors in Konoha's history. Be very wary. Also, until the operation at least, you mustn't use them unless you are in an indisputably life-or-death situation. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the boys chorused seriously or at least as serious as a couple teens getting super-powers.

"In the meantime, Jiraiya and I will work on contacting Tsunade-chan. Again, thank you for coming to me with this. On a lighter note, how are things with your new sensei?"

"Actually, we've had the last week off, but we're heading to our first training session with Zabuza-sensei right now, so we'll see how it goes."

"Alright, well good luck you two."

The two Uchiha boys bowed and shunshined away. Jiraiya turned to his old sensei.

"Now that we're finally alone, I can update you on Naruto's progress. To start off with the light stuff, he faced a ninja in Nami who worked for Gato. The man turned out to be a very honorable shinobi, and after Naruto defeated him, he gave him a very powerful sword which belonged to his clan, called the Tenmon no Tsurug."

"The Tenmon no Tsurug? So this man was of the Manji clan?"

"You've heard of them and their blade?"

"Why, yes, I remember facing their clan head in battle once. That blade of theirs surprised our team and forced us to retreat. A sword that doubles the weight of whomever it strikes…a powerful weapon indeed. And now Naruto has it?"

"Yes, the Manji clan was one of those exterminated during the bloodline purge. This Hideki was the last of them, so he simply gave it to Naruto, being impressed with his upstanding conduct. No doubt passed on to him by the legendary toad sage of Mount Myoboku!" exclaimed Jiraiya, who had gotten up just to perform his legendary stance. However he sweat dropped when he saw that Hiruzen was totally ignoring him.

"That reminds me, I need to get you, Kakashi and Obito on that mission soon," the Hokage said to himself.

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Two dark-haired boys and a blonde lay in sweaty puddles in a field, unable to move an inch. The jays seemed to mock them with their songs. Some even hopped about right in front of them, as if daring the boys to try to catch them.

"C'mon, you guys can't be _that _out of shape," their sensei commented with a devious smile.

"Not…out of shape…that was…ridiculous," Shisui barely managed to spit out.

"Oh, please. I mean look at me, I'm still spry as a spring chicken," Zabuza returned. "Also, want to know where I got this training regimen from? Maito Guy-senpai was telling me about this kid four years younger than you all, and this is exactly what he does every day."

"An eight-year-old doing this? Give me a break," Naruto exclaimed, having finally caught his breath. "We just went through, like, two hours of hell!"

"First of all, Zabuza-sensei is right. Sasuke-kun was telling me about a kid in the class above him who is trying to 'become a splendid ninja without the use of ninjutsu or genjutsu, only taijutsu.' The kid is a physical freak. Also, we can't have been going for more than thirty minutes," Itachi responded with a sad chuckle.

"Twenty," their sensei corrected as he jogged in place, not at all spent after that conditioning session. "But not to worry, doing that twice a day will get you used to it in no time."

"Twice a day!?" Naruto whined.

"Alright, that's it. Two thousand pushups right now, since Naruto is so eager."

"Way to go, Naruto-nii," Shisui mumbled under his breath.

"Whoa, three hundred suicides on top of that thanks to Shisui sharing his buddy's enthusiasm! Talk shit about your teammates in front of me and you'll quickly wish you didn't!"

"I'm not here to be your friend, I'm here to be your sensei!" he continued in response to their groans.

Suddenly realization struck Naruto as he looked over and saw his teammates slogging through the pushups, much like he was. "Damn," he said aloud. Both his teammates looked over as they continued to slowly go down and pick themselves back up. "What would Hayate-sensei think if he were here, watching us act like a bunch of bitchy little girls? You know what, fuck this man!" He got up impassioned and took out a kunai from his pouch.

"You two get the hell up too!" his friends were inspired by what he said and so also got up, but were slightly confused as to what he really planned to do. Meanwhile, Zabuza was watching curiously.

To everyone's shock, Naruto took the kunai and slashed his upper arm (so that he could continue to do his pushups and not risk passing out from blood loss). "On the blood of this wound I swear to Kami that I will never give up or bitch about anything ever again! No student of Hayate Gekko or son of the Yondaime Hokage and the Toad Sannin is ever going to be so lacking in dignity!"

Now especially deeply inspired by their friend, the other boys took out their own kunai. "The same goes for the Uchiha clan, the best clan in the world. If we're getting beat by some scrub Uzumaki then we're disgracing our whole livelihood!" they said in unison with smirks to Naruto and made their own cuts in the same spot.

"NOW LET'S DO THIS SHIT!"

They immediately dropped down and resumed their pushups with a vigor unseen before by Zabuza. He found it very amusing, as the whole scene had been very cheesy and cliché, but he had to admit, Naruto had a way of inspiring people. It had been very effective.

Before anyone knew it, the extra punishment was over, and the boys gathered around their new sensei almost ready to drop over dead.

"Alright, before we go any further, I have to get a good idea of all of your skills and you of mine so we can work together as a team effectively."

For the next fifteen or so minutes, the four of them exchanged information of their combat abilities, including the boys demonstrating the many different combinations they had together.

"I'm very impressed, you guys work very, very well together. Of course, having every one of the five chakra natures represented doesn't hurt," Zabuza commented. "Now, finally, do any of you three have any summons?"

"I do," Naruto responded. After a few hand signs, he slammed his hand on the ground and said calmly, "**Summoning Jutsu.**" A normal-sized orange toad appeared. "This little guy is Gamakichi, but I can summon Gamabunta, who's the size of a bijuu, if I want."

Both the Uchiha had been watching with their sharingan active because of just having drilled through their team combos. "Psshhh, I can do that," Shisui said confidently and began forming the copied hand signs.

"No, don't!" Zabuza tried to yell but it was too late.

"**Summoning Jutsu!**" With a puff of smoke, the Uchiha boy was gone.

"God damn it! If he's not back in an hour and a half I'll get Hokage-sama. Come on, let's do some kenjustu training."

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Shisui found himself falling from the sky into a small but deep body of water. When he surfaced from the water, he was mesmerized by what he saw.

He had landed in a river flowing from a large waterfall, which was crashing down just behind him. On either side of the river was a lush, green forest, much greener than the trees and fields in Konoha. As he stepped onto the grass, he could tell it was much softer too, even with his sandals on. He walked for a while and saw much of the same, until he reached a road paved with some sort of beautiful light pink stone. He picked a random direction and walked that way for a few minutes before he saw something in the horizon running toward him.

From a distance it looked like a puppy, but he could tell now that it was closer that it had the features of a wolf, and the size of one too. However, Shisui remained unafraid.

Before long, the wolf was just in front of him. "Come with me. All your questions shall be answered by Mun-Mun-sama."

_Lord Moon-moon? Someone's parents wanted a girl. But I guess I'll go along. _He wasn't shocked that the wolf was talking as he had seen Naruto's toads talk and knew that summon animals could talk.

Shisui looked all around him at the mystical landscape. He still had no idea where he was, but it was magical. Before long, the two of them were at a massive castle, so tall that it passed the clouds. It stuck out like a sore thumb, made entirely of black and white stone, a stark contrast to the vibrant colors of the surrounding area.

The Uchiha guessed that the front gate must have been 200 feet tall. The gate led into a hall that was proportionally large to the rest of the castle. Sitting on a throne at the end of the foyer was the largest living thing Shisui had ever seen.

It was a wolf that was about fifteen stories tall, at least as big as Gamabunta with all four paws on the ground. It was completely white with various scars on its body, the most obvious one being a diagonal one right in between the eyes. It seemed that Mun-mun had come frighteningly close to blindness.

"**Greetings, human weakling,**" the giant boomed.

"Kami, man, lower your voice. My weak, human eardrums can't take that shit." Shisui shot back.

"**Such insolence! What gives you the right to talk to me like that!?**"

"These." Shisui flashed his Mangekyo menacingly.

It was an amusing sight to see the great beast to begin to cower in fear at the sight. "**Those…those eyes! But how!?**"

"I am an Uchiha, of course. But I have the power of Madara in these eyes. Now tell me why I'm here!"

The wolf mentally cursed himself for being such a coward in front of a mere child and attempted to recover. "**You have reverse summoned yourself into Okami no Kuni (Land of Wolves). You are the first human to do this…ever. We wolves are normally a race too proud to become the summons of any human, but I cannot ignore fate or the power of the eyes of Madara. It is destined that you become the Shoukan Sha no Okami (Wolf Summoner) as seen by your appearance here."**

"Very well, I suppose that will be serviceable." The gray wolf from earlier appeared with a contract. "You had a contract just laying around even though you've never had a summoner?"

"**It's a requirement for all us shinobi animals. Sign it in blood.**"

Shisui bit his finger and signed it. "Alright, I have to go, but before I do, one last question- how'd you get all those scars?"

"**Hmph. Perhaps I will tell you later. What is your name, new Shoukan Sha no Okami?**"

"Shisui Uchiha," he said darkly and spun his mangekyo.

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Naruto and Itachi were coming at each other with swords drawn. Just as they were about to clash blades, a puff of smoke appeared in front of them.

"Shit!" Shisui yelled as he saw two swords coming at him. Just in the nick of time, the two blades froze.

"Damn it, Shisui, why did you do that? Don't you know that trying to summon when you don't have a contract reverse summons you to another place?"

"Well, obviously not, but I think it went pretty well." He formed the appropriate hand signs and said, "**Summoning Jutsu.**"

With yet another puff of smoke, a different wolf, this one a sleek black. Evidently, the wolves had spread the news of the summoning contract very quickly. "Shisui-sama, I am at your service," the wolf said with reverence. Shisui's companions looked on with jaws dropped.

"What's your name?"

"Sadzo."

"Thank you for your services, Sadzo, you may go. I just wanted to show you to my friends here." The wolf nodded and left.

Naruto and Itachi jumped on their friend. "DUDE WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID YOU GET THAT CONTRACT!?"

"I have my ways of persuasion," he said calmly and shot his cousin a look. Realizing what the look meant, Itachi frowned but didn't worry too much.

"Well," Zabuza broke in, "I guess we have two summons on the team now. So now that that interesting adventure is over, we all have something to talk about. Do you all know what's coming up in about a month?"

"Shisui's next period?"

"The first time Naruto talks to a girl?"

"Itachi's…fuck, I got nothing."

"Uh, no. It's the chunin exams."

"Ohhhhhhhh," the three said unanimously.

"Yeah, and obviously I'm nominating you. You guys are far above the normal genin level, and that's individually. As a team, you could take down a couple of ANBU if it came down to it. And that's without Naruto using his kyuubi mode. But it's not good enough to win this whole thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been gathering as much information as possible on those entering, and it looks really tough. Here's what I know…"

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Kakashi and Obito were just about to begin a spar when an ANBU appeared next to them.

"Hokage-sama orders that you report to his office in 45 minutes. Be prepared for a long journey."

The two veterans simply nodded and shunshined away to their homes to begin packing.

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Precisely 44 minutes later, the two shinobi walked into Hiruzen's office, masks on and battle-ready. The old man wasted no time with formalities.

"The council and I have mutually agreed that in light of recent and upcoming events, Konoha could use more military allies. I have sent a message to the Kiri rebellion stating the terms of a deal- if we send you two to aid them in their war, they will form an alliance with us once the current Mizukage is overthrown. Not just any alliance either, but one that is very favorable to us: they will be obligated to aid us in any war we engage in, but we will not be obligated to aid them in a war of their own."

"Those are very one-sided terms," Kakashi commented. "They must be desperate."

"They are, and they realize what valuable assets you two are. Your mission, then, is to report to Mei Terumi at a village called Kamizan"- he stood up and gestured to a pin on a map on the wall- "which is the center of the rebellion's forces, and complete whatever objectives she asks of you. Any questions?"

Silence.

"Very good, be off at top speed immediately," the Hokage said neutrally.

Two nods and two shunshins later the old man was alone.

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**Chunin exam arc begins NEXT CHAPTER! And it parallels the beginning of the pre-war arc, so two very important and exciting arcs begin next time around.**

**Rate and Review.**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Making New Friends**

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_(One week before Chunin Exams)_

Naruto and his Uchiha brothers were coming up on a tailor shop in the center of Konoha. They walked in and came straight to the head tailor behind the counter.

"Excuse me, are the orders we put in finished yet?" Naruto asked politely.

"Sure is! Give me a second to grab them from the back."

Naruto was famous throughout the village. He didn't need to make reservations at fancy restaurants; not only would the establishment open up a table for him if it was full, but people would willingly give up their seat for him. He was considered a hero throughout the village, so he would certainly be recognized by a tailor. Why even bother leaving him with a name?

Before long, the tailor was back with the requested threads. "Here they are. I must say, they're incredibly beautiful," the man said, obviously pleased with how they had turned out.

They were three cloaks, all with the primary color of a gray storm cloud, with many black raindrops (thin and long like senbon; the shape of actual raindrops, not the cartoon kind) over the gray background that dropped below the knees (think same type of cloak that the Akatsuki use), one for each boy. On the front left, over the heart, were the kanjis for "Black Rain". However, they all had different designs on the back.

Naruto's cloak had a huge, three-pronged Hiraishin kunai on the back facing downwards. "Standing" on the three prongs, in the center of the kunai, was the black silhouette of a toad unsheathing two katana from its back. From its neck hung a necklace which culminated in a fully-colored and large Uzumaki swirl draped in the center of the back of the cloak.

On the back of Itachi's cloak was a huge copy of the Uchiha clan symbol, but instead of the fire emerging from the fan, a carbon copy of Itachi's mangekyo eye was there. But at the very top of the red ring, the eye gradually dissolved into a murder of black silhouetted crows which were flying up toward the collar.

Shisui's design was very similar to his cousin's, but his own four-point pinwheel replaced Itachi's, and rather than dissolving into a murder of crows, there was a black silhouette of a wolf at the bottom of the eye, howling at the center of it as though it were the moon.

"Kami, these are dope!" Shisui exclaimed as he grabbed his.

"Seriously, they were soooooo worth the five hours we spent thinking them up!" Itachi agreed, also very excitedly.

"See, I told you guys they'd end up looking even better than we thought. Arigatou, mister."

"Thank you for your business, I hope to see you again!"

Immediately upon retrieving them, the boys went into an alleyway nearby and changed, dumping their old clothes in the nearest dumpster. "What was our name again, Naruto?"

"We'll be Black Rain. I figure it's much better to give ourselves a badass name now before we get really popular since we're bound to get one eventually. And you know how stupid nicknames that the media give can be." His friends nodded in agreement.

"Man, these are so much looser, I feel like I could kick even _more _ass with these on!" the blonde said. Just as his friends were about to sarcastically clear up the fact that in order to have _more_ of something, you have to have some of it to begin with, they noticed a scene happening down a road nearby and decided to investigate.

They saw two shinobi wearing Suna headbands, a guy wearing a weird get-up and a lot of makeup and a girl with sandy blonde hair, a huge fan on her back and two short, spiky pigtails. The dude was picking up a boy much younger than him by his collar and saying something when the newly dubbed Black Rain intervened.

"Uh oh, fellas, looks like we've got a pedo on our hands. We should probably just let him have that kid, I don't wanna be next," Naruto said as they approached the scene.

"Hey, I'm no pedo, he was just being a brat, and who the fuck are you to talk to me like that?" the guy said as he dropped the boy and eyed the newcomers. Meanwhile the child immediately ran off.

"Hey Shisui?" Itachi said to his cousin.

"Yeah, Itachi?"

"How tall do you think that guy in the cat costume is?"

The older cousin looked hard at the Suna genin. "I'd say about 5'4"."

Itachi turned to him in mock shock. "I had no idea they could stack shit so high!"

"Whoa, wait, wait. Look at her," Naruto said and pointed to the girl. She heard this and blushed, then smiled cockily.

"I'm Temari. You like what you see, little boy?" She was convinced she had him.

The Uzumaki looked at her briefly, then to Shisui. "I had no idea we were going out to get KFC."

"Whatcha mean, man?"

"I mean, look at her. It's like eating KFC- once you're done with the breasts and thighs, the only thing left is a greasy box to throw your bone into."

"Yeah, man, you're probably right. Anyone willing to do her is just too lazy to jerk off."

The two Suna shinobi just stood there in shock. They had just been thoroughly schooled. Just then another Suna genin with red hair and a gourd on his back, presumably their partner, appeared in a swirl of sand.

"I apologize for any trouble they might have caused," he said addressing the three Konoha ninjas.

"It was all their fault, Gaara. They started it all!"

"All right, all right, we had our fun," Itachi admitted. "Let's just make it up to them. Shisui, any ideas?"

"Yeah, we can send you guys some get-well cards but you'll have to give us time since they're hard to find in braille."

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" the cat-man yelled.

"That you guys are both retarded and blind to even consider taking us on," Naruto answered.

"Come on, guys, let's get out of here before my wolves mistake that guy's gourd for a sandbox and take a shit in it," Shisui commented.

"We're right behind you. Let's get out of here before that girl's fat ass gets jealous of all the shit coming out of that clown's mouth," his cousin added. They were about to leave when the red-haired genin stopped them.

"Wait. I am Gaara Sabaku. Tell me your names."

"Naruto Namikaze, Itachi Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha. You won't be forgetting those names anytime soon." Suddenly the three were gone without a trace.

"You fools! Did you just openly confront the Yondaime Hokage's son and the two prodigies of the strongest clan in this village? I should kill you both! Especially you, Kankuro, you need to quit your games before I feel the need to prove my existence with your blood!" Gaara said.

"S-s-so-sorry, I didn't mean to, they started it all!"

Ignoring his older brother's answer, he stormed off in a rage as his siblings fearfully followed.

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The newest cloak-clad gang on Konoha's streets dropped onto some training grounds toward the outskirts of the village. Waiting for them there was a tall, imposing man with a massive sword strapped to his back and bandages all over his body.

"Took you three long enough. If the exams weren't in a week I'd have you all doing the normal exercises for being late."

"Sorry, Zabuza-sensei, we ran into some interesting characters on the way over here, contestants in the exams. Two of them were weak but fun to make fun of; the other one was very special, though," Naruto said seriously.

"You mean the Gaara kid? He had really large chakra reserves," Itachi said observantly.

"That's right. Kyuubi told me on the way over here that he's the Ichibi jinchurikii."

"Oh, really? Well that makes things very interesting," Zabuza said with a devious grin.

"Indeed, but that's not all. The contestants are all here in the village by now, and that's not the only jinchurikii that Kyuubi is sensing," the blonde continued, unable to hide the shadow of worry on his face.

"What!? You mean there's another one?!" Shisui exclaimed, anxiety evident in his tone.

"Not just one- including me and the Suna kid there are **six** jinchurikii competing in these exams…"

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_(One week later)_

Black Rain stood outside the building which would host the first part of the exams, the written exams. "Alright, Uchiha bitch niggas, let's do this shit." After exchanging their patented handshakes, they entered the beginning of the end of their lives as genin.

Upon reaching the third floor to enter room 305, they noticed a commotion in the hall. It seemed that two genin were blocking any others from entering. There was a sizable group in front of the door clamoring to gain entrance. At first glance all three of the group were able to determine it was a very low-level genjutsu. Shisui winked at his brothers as if to say, _Play along. _

He joined the group and was especially loud. "HEY, LET US IN, GUYS! THIS IS SO NOT FAIR! YOU GUYS SUCK! I WANNA BE A SUPER COOL CHUNIN! I'M THE STRONGEST NINJA IN KONOHA!"

Soon Itachi and Naruto joined too. "YEAH, I'M SHISUI UCHIHA AND YOU ALL SUCK DICKS FOR BREAKFAST!" Itachi yelled.

"MY NAME IS ITACHI UCHIHA! WORSHIP MY MAJESTIC, ROYAL BLOOD YOU COCK-SUCKING PEASANTS!" Naruto exclaimed, joining in.

After a few more minutes, the crowd in the hall had gotten quite large as a result of many passerby being sucked in by the growing noise of the group. Shisui decided they had done enough damage.

"Well, guys, I guess it's time to just give up," the oldest Black Rain member made sure to say loudly for everyone in the area to hear.

"Yeah, I mean what's six months anyway? In the meantime, I'll get extra strong!" Itachi said just as believably and loudly. The three of them walked to the door that led to the stairs, noticing that every single person in the group were following them out, slowly but surely. They stood at the door and held it, letting everyone leave before them, giving gentle "encouragement" as all their potential opponents left. Soon the hallway was empty except for the two "chunin".

"Damn, Shisui, nice work. That was like, over thirty people that we just got out of here," Naruto complimented.

"What can I say? This Uchiha mind is devious. You know the bitches love a bad boy."

"Breh, maybe you should get a bitch before you get to talking about what a bitch want," Itachi said in his most gangster voice.

"Niggas know I got dem bitches on tha liiiiinnneeeee #getthatdome #beatthepussyup," Shisui returned in the same thug accent.

"Can we just take this stupid exam already?" Naruto said jokingly seriously.

"Yeah, we actually probably should."

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Arriving in the proper examination room they found that it was nearly overflowing with chunin hopefuls.

"Damn, there's way too much competition. I mean it's not like we can't kick all their asses, but this is just stupid," Shisui stated, clearly annoyed.

"I agree. Let's fuck with some of the stronger-looking people," Naruto decided, and his friends readily joined him.

"Hey, look, there's the Suna kids. That cat costume kid had me dying, Kami that was funny as hell," Itachi laughed.

"Yeah, but I'd say they've had enough. Maybe we'll run into them later," Shisui commented. Just as he was about to point out potential prey, they were called into the room to conduct the written part of the exam.

The three of them strolled confidently into the room, but unfortunately, being the last ones there, they barely managed to find seats at all, and so couldn't sit next to each other. The blonde found himself sitting next to a decidedly feminine boy with long, silky hair covering one eye and a loose, blue robe. A Kiri headband signified his allegiance.

"Bro," Naruto started, "are you the newest backup dancer for One Direction? Because I was at their last concert and I swear you were a backup dancer." Gaining no response from his fellow genin, he pressed further.

"I know your secret," the blonde whispered. The other boy widened his eyes greatly.

"What? How do you know?" he whispered back, clearly panicked.

"People tell me I have great perception about these things. What's your name?"

"Utakata."

"Well, Utakata, your secret is safe with me. You know, I've always wondered- what's it like?" Naruto had never met another person in his "situation", so he was curious to see what it was like for others.

Utakata sighed. "I won't lie, it's very hard. Once everyone knows, there's no going back, and that kind of news spreads like wildfire. I'm hated and shunned in my own village."

"That's terrible! How can they treat you like that for something that's not even your fault? You can't control it, you've been this way almost since birth!"

"I try to tell them, but they won't listen. People can be very cruel and unreasonable. I don't suppose…you're like me?"

Naruto took a second and thought hard. He probably shouldn't tell, but he sympathized with his new acquaintance and wanted to let him know he wasn't alone. "I am, but I was fortunate enough that everyone in my village has yet to find out, except my close family." Naruto found it very strange when he noticed Utakata tearing up. It was even stranger, however, when the Kiri genin's hand found its way down to the Uzumaki's upper thigh.

"It's good to know there's hope for acceptance," the dark-haired boy said with a choked voice. "If you ever need a friend, or something…more," he continued lustfully with a wink, "I'll be there for you. For this type of thing, you need that kind of support and sympathy. Being gay is so hard."

Before Naruto could fully digest what the hell had just happened, a thoroughly scarred and frightening man at the front of the room called for silence. The boy heard Kyuubi roaring with laughter inside his head.

_What the ACTUAL fuck Kyuubi!? You said he was a jinchurikii!_

_**He is, but clearly he thought you two were having a very different conversation HAHAHAHAHAHA!**_

Naruto just shook his head and phased back into the outside world, where Ibiki, who he had seen around the village and knew, was wrapping up his explanation.

"…and that's it. Hand these out," he said and handed the tests to a chunin who proceeded to pass them out. "The tenth question will be asked once you're all done with this first part."

_Fuck, I hope there weren't any special rules. Then again, a test is a test right? And why is he separating the tenth question?_

Upon receiving the test, Naruto quickly scanned it. He nodded and rubbed his chin in contemplation. _Cheating time! Let's see how I can do this. _He subtly searched the room.

_Alright, so there's a few henge'd chunin in here, and one happens to be right next to me. He knows all the answers._

The Namikaze waited a few minutes until he noticed that the chunin next to him had finished and flipped over his paper to the blank side. Naruto flipped over his own (still blank) paper as well. Just when the one next to him looked away, he deployed a very simple Futon justu which sent the paper flying toward him. It fell on the floor in front of Naruto, so he picked it up for the "genin" next to him, without looking at it of course. However, unbeknownst to the "genin", he had taken the opportunity to lace it with his chakra. When the other ninja looked away again, the blonde went for it.

_Substitution Jutsu, _he thought. Even if the chunin had been staring at his paper the whole time, he would never have noticed the change. Naruto flipped over the paper in front of him ever so slightly and indeed, it was covered in answers. He swiftly, and without his victim noticing, erased the name on it and scribbled in his own name, then flipped it back over.

_That's how the son of the Yondaime Hokage cheats, bitches. _Now all he had to do was wait for Ibiki to call the test over. Several minutes later, quite a few genin had been sent out for cheating, and it was over.

"Alright, pass up the tests! Now for the tenth question. Before I give it to you, though, there's something you should know," the jonin said with a devious grin. "Should you get this question wrong, you and your team will be banned from the chunin exams…for life!"

Immediately a raucous clamor ensued, with the genin all yelling their disapproval. Of course, Black Rain were all smart enough not to fall for such a lame trick, so they took the opportunity to amplify the noise with their own shouting.

"Shisui Uchiha will suck your dick for money! He sucked mine for five ryo!"

"Naruto Namikaze masturbates to Nicholas Sparks novels!"

"Itachi Uchiha watched _The Notebook _seven times in a row!"

"What the fuck, dude, you said you wouldn't tell anyone that!"

Soon they had quieted down and Ibiki continued. "However, there is another option. You can quit now and come back to take the exams in six months. If you raise your hand, you automatically forfeit your whole team. Now who wants out?"

About a minute of silence followed before hands began to shoot up. Ten minutes later, quite a few had opted out of the tenth question, but the hands had quit going up for a while so I seemed that everyone left would be taking the last question. But then Ibiki pointed to a genin in the second row.

"You! Yeah, you and your team are out of here!"

"What!? I didn't even raise my hand!"

"Shut up, genin brat! You and your team have volunteered to leave!"

The boy would have protested more, but the scarred ANBU T&I department head scared him too much. His team followed suit and filed out behind him.

"You too, Taki weaklings!"

"But I didn't-"

"GET OUT!"

Before long, six more teams met an unexplained banishment at the hands of Ibiki's seemingly random selections. All in the room were grossly appalled, but fear kept them silent.

"Alright, that seems to be all. Congratulations, you all pass the written section of the chunin exams."

Another clamor, though this one smaller. Temari's voice rose above the rest of the crowd.

"What about the tenth question?" she shouted.

"That was the tenth question. You see-"

A crash from the window interrupted the proctor as Anko Mitarashi, his favorite co-worker, sailed into the room and gazed out at her fresh prey.

"Looks like you got a good number of them, Ibiki!" the Snake Mistress exclaimed excitedly. She wore a short, tight, purple skirt and a tan jacket which barely covered her top, which was just a fishnet tank. "Still too many, though. But not to worry, by the time I'm done with them, they'll be cut in half!"

"Anko…you're early…"

"Oh. Whoops," she said apologetically as she rubbed the back of her head.

Naruto checked out the newest proctor and whistled loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "Hey, Itachi," he called out to his friend, who was all the way in the back, so that everyone could hear them both.

"What's up, Naruto?"

"I've got some Senju blood in me, right?"

"Damn right."

"Well I have good news- I'm feeling my Wood Style awakening," he said and winked at Anko. The two Uchiha in the room couldn't contain their laughter.

"You know, Namikaze, you're getting cuter every time I see you," she answered and blew a kiss at him. Everyone in the room but Naruto's teammates were seething in anger- the males in jealousy, the females in disgust with the whole show.

"Anyway, you brats all have fifteen minutes to be at training ground 44. If you're late, you fail!" With that, she shunshined away.

Immediately, Shisui sprinted toward the window and everyone watched as he swan dove out. They all plastered themselves against the windows on the wall to behold his fate. Before their eyes he flipped back toward them all, shot at them with imaginary finger guns, winked and then teleported away without a hand sign, causing all the girls in the room to blush at how cool and hot he was.

"Show off," Naruto muttered in obvious jealousy, before performing his own hand-sign-less shunshin himself, this one accompanied by a huge gust of wind which blew everyone's hair back, pushed some people backwards, and made every piece of paper in the room fly haphazardly about.

"I apologize for their childish antics," Itachi said seriously, before everyone watched him melt into a murder of crows that took a dump on everyone's heads in the room as they flew out the window, again without hand signs.

After witnessing these dramatic exits, everyone had one of three thoughts. The scrubs: _What have I gotten myself into? _The confident, perhaps cocky genin: _I guess there is some decent competition here. _The older Konoha ninja: _I knew all their sensei's training would go to their heads…_

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Itachi stopped where Shisui was, a distance away from Naruto, far enough for them to speak in private.

"Shisui, did you use your **Kotoamatsukami **to manipulate Ibiki-san into throwing out those teams?"

"Maybe…and if I did, so what?"

"You know Hokage-sama said never to use the Mangekyo unless it was a life-or-death situation! Normally I would have no problem with a little gamesmanship, as everything's fair in the ninja world, but don't use those eyes anymore, please."

The older cousin sighed. "You know, you're no fun, Itachi-nii. Alright, I understand, I won't use them anymore."

"Thank you." Just then Naruto approached.

"Nobody else is here," the blonde began. "I guess we're the only ones who can shunshin."

"Well it is a jonin-level jutsu so I'm not exactly surprised."

"That's true. So how'd you guys cheat?" the youngest Black Rain member asked.

"I knew most of the answers, but I just used my sharingan to copy people's hand movements for the other ones," Shisui answered.

"Same," his cousin said.

"Cool." The rest of the fifteen minutes passed with random small talk, mostly about women. Soon all the genin had made it and Anko began her explanation of the following part of the exam.

"This training ground is known as the Forest of Death. It's called that because if you don't keep your head on a swivel, you'll wake up and find yourself dead. Each team will receive one scroll, a heaven scroll or an earth scroll. There are an even number of scrolls and teams. In order to pass this section, you have to get both a heaven scroll and an earth scroll and get it to the building in the center of this place. You bunch will have five days to get this done. Go over there to sign a waiver of liability that states that Konoha is not responsible for any injury or death that occurs in here and throughout the exams, and once each member of your team turns one in, you'll receive a scroll and be escorted to your entrance gate. Any questions? Thought so. Have fun!" Without giving the students a chance to ask any questions, she immediately shunshined away.

Before long, the boys receive their scroll and were standing at the entrance gate. "Ok, guys, this'll be a breeze," Naruto encouraged and was rewarded with two nods from his teammates. Just then the signal to begin sounded, the gates opened, and the boys ventured swiftly into the jungle from hell.

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**Omake by BarelySage: Shisui Got Game**

Naruto, Itachi and Shisui were seated in a dango shop eating when Itachi and Shisui continued to make fun of Naruto's imaginary girlfriend.

"Guys, come on, I told you she's real. I bet this is about the fact that you guys don't have girlfriends while I at least like someone."

"Whatever man, Itachi and I could get any chick we want. Isn't that right, ani?"

"Absolutely. How about this- pick any girl you see here and I guarantee that she will want the D by the end of the conversation."

"Alright then, fag, go talk to her," the blonde challenged as he pointed to a girl sitting on a bench nearby.

"Her? This'll be too easy." Itachi got up and swaggered over to the girl who saw him coming but ignored him. He took the seat right next to her forcing her to look at him.

"Hello, miss, my name is Itachi Uchiha of the royal Uchiha clan that helped found this village," he stated proudly, expecting the usual fan-girl response. He could see it now, she would suddenly fall in love, he would play it cool, and by the end of the night she would be all over him and maybe even let him try…

"Was that supposed to impress me? My boyfriend is over there getting us some drinks so please get out of my face, needle dick."

Shisui and Naruto were laughing at their friend so hard they were struggling to catch their breath and stay in their seats. The older cousin turned to the Uzumaki and put on his best Itachi impersonation.

"I'm Itachi Uchiha, I make all the ladies swoon with my good looks and charisma! It's just too bad I have a needle dick!" Naruto laughed even more.

"No, no, you're doing it wrong, Shisui, it's more like, 'I'm Itachi Uchiha, you should be honored to suck my needle-shaped dick, you peasant.'" Itachi stormed over and hit both of them before they could go any further.

"Like you could do any better!" Shisui looked up at him and stood up, brushing the imaginary dirt off his shoulders as he passed him.

"Just sit back and maybe you'll learn how a man picks up a lady."

Shisui strolled over to her and activated his sharingan. "Hello, I'm Shisui Uchiha, and your man isn't me. Look at your man, now back to me, now back to your man, now back to me. Sadly he isn't me but if he stopped using lady scented body wash he could smell like he's me. Look down. Now look back up. Where are you? You're on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What's in your hand? Now back to me, I have it, it's an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds! Anything is possible when your man smells like an Uchiha and not a lady. I'm on the moon." He turned his sharingan off and awaited a response.

"Well, you're good-looking and smell great, so I guess I could go out to dinner with you." Naruto and Itachi had fallen out of their seats and onto the floor in wonder at how in the world Shisui had pulled that off after saying all that nonsense. Itachi ran over to the girl wondering where he had gone wrong.

"I thought you had a boyfriend and that's why you turned me down! You're picking him just because he smells better?"

"No offense, but he just has a better body than you, I mean I obviously can't tell what he smells like from this distance." The two abandoned friends were dumbfounded along with Shisui who was now being dragged down the street by the girl.

"Better luck next time, guys!" Shisui said with a smirk as he left with her.

"I think I'm going to the training ground for a while," Itachi said quietly, almost a whisper. He glanced at Naruto for a second then poked his stomach as he wondered if he was getting heavy. The younger cousin just nodded to himself, still broken from the fact that Shisui was probably going to get laid and there was no way he would get any sleep that night.

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**Hope you guys enjoyed that treat from BarelySage, I know I did. He'll be updating Adventures of an ANBU Trainee very soon. **

**Sorry it's been a while since I've posted, and I realize it was Ill-Fated's turn to be updated, but I had to work out some things with Sage on that one. A tantalizingly in-depth war arc is coming up in that story, and there are quite a lot of logistics to be worked out.**

**Rate and review. **


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Forestry Fun**

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Team 7 spent an hour or two just running straight into the forest, figuring that they might as well get as close as possible to the tower. Presently they decided to stop by a particularly large tree and think out their strategy from there.

"Alright, who's tired?" Naruto asked.

Nobody spoke.

"Come on, there's no shame, we've been running for a couple of hours. Itachi, we all know your fat ass is 'bout to break down."

"Honestly, you'd probably normally be right, but I feel fine. I guess Zabuza-sensei really was onto something."

"He's right," Shisui added. "It's only been a month of that stuff but it really was ridiculous. I feel fresh as a spring daisy."

His teammates looked at him. "Seriously? That's the simile you pick?"

The oldest team member just shrugged and looked away. "Whatever, bro. We'll get one scroll each, to eliminate as many teams as possible?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's meet back here in two hours, whether you have a scroll or not."

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Itachi didn't have much trouble in finding a team. Kakashi was easily the best tracker in Konoha, nearly matching the best of the Inuzuka, although not being quite on par with the Hyuuga thanks to their ability to see chakra miles away. However, he had been able to pass on the secrets of channeling chakra to the nose most effectively to his student, as well as other tracking methods, so it wasn't long before Itachi had his eyes on a group of Kumo ninja walking below him as he sat casually on a tree branch.

_They couldn't be more oblivious. I think I'll have some fun. _While he followed the group, who right now were silent, he made some careful hand signs.

Suddenly, down below, one of them made a move.

"Omoi, what the fuck?! Did you seriously do what I just think you did?! You think just because we're in the middle of an exam it's ok to grab Samui's ass?!"

The dark-skinned boy named Omoi just stammered. "Uh, uh, I'm, I'm sorry, Karui, I swear I didn't mean to!"

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to her! And what do you mean you didn't do it! I swear to God I'm this close to ripping you apart!"

Meanwhile the busty blonde girl named Samui was silently searching the forest. _That was way too unlike Omoi. He would never have the guts to pull that kind of stunt._

"Shut up, you two!" she said loudly and commandingly. "Someone is playing us for fools."

"Aw, you ruined my fun," said a sarcastically sad Itachi as he jumped out in front of them with his sharingan active.

"An Uchiha," Samui said with a glare. "I should've known only one of you would be able to do such a subtle and effective genjutsu."

"How do you know that was a genjutsu? What if that guy was just really horny and wanted to grab your ass?"

"Omoi wouldn't do that, especially not with me here!" Karui said confidently. "You don't even like Samui, right?"

The dark-skinned boy blushed heavily. "Uh, uh, well, I mean-"

"You did do it! I can't believe-"

"Shut up! Both of you! We know that you put him in a genjutsu, so quit the games," Samui finished.

"Fair enough. But how do you know you're not in a genjutsu right now?"

"Samui, I'm tired of this! Let's find out if we're in a genjutsu by attacking him!" Karui yelled.

"No, that's what he wants. He probably has some sort of trap set. I know how to get out of this." With some focus, the busty blonde fluctuated her chakra, and sure enough, nothing had changed. "Ha! There wasn't a genjutsu after all."

"Oh, please. You think something as simple as a fluctuation of your chakra will break you out of a sharingan genjutsu?" Itachi bluffed.

"Fine!" Suddenly the supposed team leader took out a kunai and cut her hand with it, wincing at the pain.

"Wow, you're stupid. There wasn't a genjutsu at all, I just tricked you into cutting yourself," Itachi said with a laugh.

Normally the poster child for calmness, Samui was indignant. "Fuck you! I'm gonna kill you!" she said and rushed at him, looking in his eyes all the way. But suddenly the boy vanished into thin air.

_Damn it, I looked in his eyes. Now there's no telling what'll happen._

As if answering her question, a giant snake emerged from underground in front of her and bared its fangs as though it were hungry and finding her very tasty-looking. However, Samui remained unafraid.

"I won't fall for your stupid tricks, Uchiha fool. I'm not scared in the least! You can keep-" Her words were cut off as the snake opened its giant maw and in the blink of an eye swallowed her up.

Omoi was horrified. "Kami, what happened!? What if he's some kind of super-shinobi who uses genjutsu that are actually real because they summon your greatest fear in real life to eat you!"

"Shut up, Omoi! It's just a normal genjutsu, Samui is fine," said his sister with less than complete confidence. Suddenly Itachi appeared behind them as the snake approached.

"Uh, yeah, I feel like I should tell you guys that there really wasn't any genjutsu in the first place, except for the ass-grabbing one."

"So…wait. That means that that snake…"

"Is real."

"And Samui…"

"Is dead."

"And it's…"

"Really two feet away from us. I should probably go now. Ciao!" Itachi said just before shunshining away, crow-style. The sudden movement caused the snake to attack, which elicited two screams that pierced the quiet forest air.

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While his two teammates ran off to track down their prey, Shisui summoned a familiar wolf.

"Greetings, Shisui-sama."

"Hey, Sadzo, what are your combat abilities?"

"The wolf clan has many. To begin with, our tracking abilities are unparalleled, even to the dog summon. We are also excellent at camouflage jutsu, to the point that even the most skilled sensor cannot detect us; to do so would require a doujutsu such as yours. Our taijutsu involves a complex shadow clone jutsu which overwhelms the enemy with deception and superior numbers, and our bites can crush bones to dust. Only a handful of ninja are faster than we are, such as the Raikage, and we can see in the dark. As far as ninjustu, we use **howl jutsu**, which are wind-based, and a few genjutsu, including causing temporary but potent deafness, which results in heavily impaired balance, and another which inspires great fear in the victim."

"Goddamn, you guys will be useful. For right now, I want you to get the scent from this scroll and find for the nearest one like it."

After a few sniffs, the wolf had his target. "It is not far, Shisui-sama. Simply shunshin roughly a mile to the northeast and you will reach them."

"Very well, follow me."

Sure enough, it was only a few seconds after the shunshin that Shisui and Sadzo were looking down at another Kumo team. The Uchiha inspected them with his powerful eyes. "Looks like that girl's a jinchurikii, and the two guys don't exactly look like pushovers. He's probably a sensor or something," he whispered to his partner.

"Good observation, Shisui-sama. What shall be our plan of action?"

"Follow my lead." The boy winked at his summon before jumping down in front of the Kumo shinobi. They immediately dropped down into combat stances.

"No worries, I come in peace, shinobi of Kumo. Just kindly hand over your scroll and this'll all be over."

"Yeah right!" the blonde-haired jinchurikii girl stated confidently. "In fact, we'll be leaving here with yours. Isn't that right, Darui?"

The addressed boy with white hair sighed. "I guess that would be the thing to do. Sorry if we can't get it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Yugito. Besides, this kid is all alone, we outnumber him three to one. What happened to your team anyway?"

"Like I need a team to take out some chumps like you. I'll take scroll by force if I have to. Besides, it's not three on one. Isn't that right, Sadzo?"

Just then the summon jumped from out of the tree line. "Precisely. Shall we begin?"

"Let's," his master responded and made some hand signs. "**Katon: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**" Many small fireballs sped toward the Kumo ninja, forcing them to split up.

"Sadzo, you take the girl, I'll take these two!" The wolf nodded and sped off toward her. Meanwhile, the two males had finished an identical set of hand signs.

"**Raiton: Lightning Blast Jutsu!**" Continuous streams of electricity shot out of the hands of both ninja very quickly, forcing Shisui into rushed action.

"**Doton: Mud Wall!**" The wall appeared just before the lightning struck, but the Uchiha hadn't had time to consider the elemental disadvantage he was at. The attack easily went through the wall so that he barely had time to jump out of the way.

_Damn, most of my Doton will be useless against these guys, _he considered seriously. _Let's try something else._

He quickly threw several kunai at the pair coated in fire chakra, causing flames to emerge from them, and quickly made the hand signs to multiply them.

The one named Darui stood in front of his partner. "**Suiton: Water Wall!**" he yelled and slammed his hands on the ground. The wall easily stopped all the oncoming weapons.

_So they have the advantage over both my elements. This isn't looking good. _Deciding to capitalize on his move, Shisui rushed at them with his katana drawn and jumped at Darui, who had yet to draw his cleaver-like sword because he was still finishing the jutsu. However, the other Kumo boy blocked the Konoha blade just in time.

"Thanks for the save, Akaru," he said calmly. Meanwhile, the other two engaged in a fierce kenjutsu battle. Katana struck katana and sparks flew. Soon, though, Shisui was getting the advantage. Finally, he hit Akaru with a leg sweep, making him land on his ass. While he was vulnerable, the Uchiha hardened his sword with earth chakra and rose up to finish the ninja below him. But he had totally forgotten about his victim's teammate.

Suddenly, Darui jumped on him and clung to him tight. "What the fuck, dude?" But before he could move, "Darui" dispersed into electricity. _Fuck, lightning clone!_

A powerful bolt of lightning shot through Shisui's left side of his body, totally numbing it and making him fall to the ground. _I gotta get the fuck out of here! _"Sadzo, get us out right now!"

Right before the Kumo ninja could make their move, the wolf, who had been successfully keeping Yugito occupied, sped over to his summoner at blinding speed and in the blink of an eye they had disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Damn, they got away," Yugito complained as she staggered over, covered in cuts and her clothes ripped in several places. "There's no point in chasing them. That stupid wolf did a number on me."

"That guy was good, and he was all by himself. He almost got both of us," Darui said, slightly impressed, as he sheathed his cleaver-like sword.

"Yeah, those Konoha shinobi are a group to seriously keep our eyes on. C'mon, let's get our other scroll."

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Meanwhile, Naruto wasn't having trouble finding his target either. He asked the Kyuubi to find the nearest jinchurikii that wasn't in the same direction that his two teammates were heading; the fox pointed him in a directly southern direction.

The Uzumaki was moving at top speed nearing his destination when he heard two voices nearby yell "**Suiton: Rising Water Cutter!**" and another "**Futon: Great Breakthrough!**" The boy faced the formidable collaboration head-on and channeled a very large amount of wind chakra into his blade.

"**Futon: Horizontal Gust Slice!**" His own wind was powerful enough to buffet the attack that had come his way. The shinobi responsible for the initial attack landed in front of their target.

"What's up, Nanabi?"

"What? How do you know?" asked a mint-haired, amber-eyed girl among the three, the other two of whom were wearing standard Taki shinobi gear and had brown hair.

"I have my ways. Look, I don't have time for this, and I know you won't just hand over the scroll, so let's get to work. Also, I'm by myself because I can be. **Shadow Clone Jutsu.**"

Ten clones appeared and rushed the Taki team, beginning with the patented team 7 tactic of splitting them up with the **Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu**. After the other two were gone, the real one casually walked toward the Nanabi jinchurikii.

"Based on the chakra levels of those two, they won't last long. Give me your scroll. Quite simply, you don't stand a chance." The girl answered by sprouting two wings from her back and rushing at her opponent with great speed.

Naruto was caught off guard by this sudden burst, be it wasn't so fast the he was overwhelmed. He ducked under the haphazard punch aimed at his face and nailed her with a full-powered punch to the gut. She coughed up blood and was thrown back quite a distance into a tree.

"Have they given you any training?"

The Taki kunoichi refused to answer but looked at him, sorrow buried deep in her eyes. Naruto had picked up some perception from his Uchiha brother.

"Wow, it's even worse than I thought. You've had to train yourself. They refused to help you. Why send you here then?"

Still no answer, just that solemn look of hidden despair.

"I guess it's none of my business, but I don't want to hurt you. Please just surrender."

"**Futon: Multiple Wind Scythes!**"

"I'll take that as a no. **Suiton: Mini Water Bombs!**" A wall of small orbs of water crashed against the wind, resulting in many mini explosions. It seemed that they had all been destroyed by her jutsu, so Fu ran forward to begin her next one. She was about to finish it when right in front of her two of them re-condensed out of thin air.

She flinched instinctively, preparing for the explosion. But it never came. She looked up to see her blonde opponent standing in front of her with her scroll. "I transformed a water clone into one of those orbs and took the scroll off you while you were flinching. And it's just the one I needed, how about that." He turned to go, but hesitated. "Listen…you're not alone. Just remember that. And get out of there as soon as possible. People never really change. Good luck."

With a burst of wind, Naruto shunshined away, leaving the Taki jinchurikii to reflect on his words.

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Naruto returned to the original camping spot to find Itachi performing medical ninjutsu on his cousin.

"What the fuck happened to Shisui?" the blonde immediately asked upon arrival.

"I ran into a tough team from Kumo. Sadzo helped me out but they were too much. One of them paralyzed the whole left side of my body. Luckily he thought to leave a reverse summon seal here for precisely this reason."

"He should be fine in a few minutes, the paralysis isn't meant to last more than half an hour. How'd your expedition go?"

He flashed his new scroll.

"Hey, nice, just the one we need. I ran into a different Kumo shinobi but the scroll got…uh…misplaced."

"That's alright, still means less competition. Once he recovers, do you guys think we should head straight for the tower or set up camp for the night here? I mean it's already pretty dark."

"…"

"…"

"HAHAHAHAHA! Take a break. Rest. That's funny. Ok, I'm good now," the oldest Black Rain member said confidently. "Let's go."

The three of them sped off toward the tower. Thanks to the distance they initially covered that afternoon, it only took about an hour to reach their destination. They were within sight of it when they sensed a big group of eleven ninja land behind them.

"Prepare for your death, Namikaze."

Without even turning around, Naruto formed the necessary hand signs and summoned Gamakichi. "Omega finish," he said quietly but with intense seriousness.

"Are you sure, bro?" Itachi asked. "That'll kill all of-"

"I know what it'll do! Just do it! These fucking Iwa bitches need to learn what happens when they continue to fuck with me and my family!"

The other three hesitantly complied, turning around and beginning to make hand signs.

"Oh, please," the same cocky Iwa genin said. "You're outnumbered three to one. What jutsu could possibly-"

"**Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu!**" "**Futon: Great Breakthrough!**" "**Toad Oil Bullet!**"

The resulting fireball, formed with two fireballs from the Uchiha and augmented by the wind of Naruto and the oil of Gamakichi, obliterated such a great span of the forest in front of them that there were giant oaks burnt to a crisp almost as far as the eye could see. Every ninja in front of them had been utterly decimated. Nothing was left of their remains.

"That was only eleven," Shisui observed. Naruto nodded and shunshined over to a rock a good distance behind them, where the last ninja was attempting to hide, and clutched him roughly by his collar.

"You go back to your damn Tsuchikage, and you tell him what happened here. You tell him that next time he attacks me or anyone in Konoha, it's going to be him and his village that are destroyed like this, not just some of his genin. Understand?"

The amount of killer intent Naruto was leaking frightened the boy beyond belief. He nodded spastically and ran off like a madman once the Namikaze let him go. He stepped slowly and somberly toward the rest of his group, who were dead silent.

"You're free to go, Kichi. C'mon guys, let's get in the tower and wrap this shit up."

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Two masked Konoha ANBU stopped in a camp in the western part of the Kiri mainland. Upon their arrival, a blue-haired jonin with an eye patch met and escorted them to their leader Mei Terumi.

"Greetings, Mei-shushou. We are here to assist you in any way you see fit," Obito began upon meeting her.

"Obito Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake. It is truly an honor to have such infamous shinobi among us," the general answered.

"Thank you, Mei-shushou, but the pleasure is all ours," Kakashi answered in a very business-like tone. Nonetheless, it elicited a smile from Mei.

"Anyway, we have no time to waste. First, you should be aware of the state of our war. This camp is no more than 30 miles from Kirigakure. As of now, the rebellion has successfully taken every island and major city other than the hidden village. The battle that will soon be waged about a mile from here is their last stand before we invade the city and finish off the loyalists for good. In other words, this war is all but over; however, taking this land hasn't come without losses. Losing this battle is still a very real possibility, although not likely. What I truly fear is a pyrrhic victory. Should this happen, we'll be lacking the necessary troops to launch an effective invasion of Kiri. So here's how you two play in- tonight, you are to infiltrate the enemy camp about two miles west of this place, assassinate their general, Niiro of the Red Mist, and place one hundred explosive tags in whatever areas you find will be most effective throughout the camp. Once you detonate those, our troops will immediately flood the area and catch the still sleeping enemy very off-guard. Pretty straight forward. Any questions?"

The two ANBU looked at each other. "No, we understand the parameters of the mission."

"Good. The tags are to your left. Obviously, I would suggest sealing them on your person somehow. You'll be leaving for your mission in about two hours, so don't get too comfortable."

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Kakashi and Obito stood on a tall peak overlooking a large Kiri loyalist camp.

"Your teleportation abilities will help you greatly in planting the tags silently, and I always was the better assassin," Kakashi said with an eye smile, "so I'll handle Niiro."

"Very well," his partner answered solemnly and without another word used his eyes to shunshin away.

The Copy Ninja sighed silently. _I promise everything will be right one day, Obito. It'll be just like old times._

Seconds later, Kakashi was crouching by an enemy tent, his sharingan uncovered and his chakra suppressed to the lowest level. He used his legendary nose to sniff out the largest unfamiliar chakra level in the area, and before long he was within sight of a large tent, the only one still lit inside. He looked around the corner and saw there were several people inside the tent and two just outside the opening.

Forming some hand signs, the Konoha assassin summoned his favorite dog Pakkun and whispered the plan in his ear. The dog grunted with obvious displeasure but relented.

Two chunin were standing outside the war room, tired and annoyed.

"How did we get stuck with this suck-ass job anyway? We're fighting soon, we have to be well-rested for the fighting," he complained to his partner, punching the air to prove his point.

"Like you're going to hit anyone, much less kill them," the other said deprecatingly.

"Hey, look, is that an injured puppy?" the other one said as he peered into the darkness, totally ignoring his friend's comment.

"I think so, let's check it out."

Ten steps forward and two efficiently thrown shuriken later, two Kiri loyalist bodies were being dragged behind one of the many tents in the area.

"You know how much I hate doing that, Kakashi. He called me a puppy. A puppy! Do I look like a puppy to you?"

"Well…uh…your work is done here, Pakkun, thanks again." The dog shook his head and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The copy nin crept carefully toward the bright tent. He looked inside with his sharingan and sure enough, four men were discussing battle tactics, one of whom with a distinctively dark and quite strong chakra.

Quickly and quietly, he placed various seals on all sides of the tent. The naivete and unawareness of those inside the tent was their demise. With one ram seal from Kakashi, the seals unloaded a massive amount of lightning chakra which instantaneously fried the tent and all those inside without making a sound. Confident in his performance, he turned around and saw a sight that made his heart stop.

Standing feet in front of him was his target, Niiro of the Red Mist.

"Seems you've lost your touch…" Suddenly Kakashi gasped from a sharp pain in his chest as a sword stabbed through his back and a clone of the loyalist general finished the sentence with a whisper in his ear.

"_**Kakashi Hatake…**_**"**

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**Rate and Review.**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**A Surprisingly Eventful Month Considering Most Authors Use This In-between Month As a Chapter to Put in As Much Useless Filler As Humanly Possible**

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Standing feet in front of Kakashi was his target, Niiro of the Red Mist.

"Seems you've lost your touch…" Suddenly Kakashi gasped from a sharp pain in his chest as a sword stabbed through his back and a clone of the loyalist general finished the sentence with a whisper in his ear.

"**Kakashi Hatake…"** He licked his lips and was about to begin a long-winded speech about how he had slain the mighty Copy Ninja of Konoha when a puff of smoke in front of him interrupted his would-be gloat.

"What!? A cl-"Something shooting out of the ground behind him and shoving a lightning-sharpened hand through his chest interrupted his exclamation.

"Yes, Niiro. A clone. You would do well to understand who you're dealing with before you try something like that. It's only too bad you won't live to put that lesson to use."

Kakashi slid his hand out of his victim's heart, then looked around to see if anyone had awoken from the noise. Fortunately, all was still silent, and right then a swirl formed in front of him and his partner stepped out.

"I see you took care of him. Leave his body out here, it will serve to demoralize the troops. The sight of one's leader and most powerful shinobi defeated so easily will work wonders to weaken his will."

"Good idea. We're done here, let's let Mei-shushou know our work here is done and get back to Konoha. After all, we have students to prepare for the finals of the chunin exams. I mean, they obviously made it."

"Obviously."

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_(3 days later)_

Those students now stood in front of their Hokage in what seemed to be a relatively small fighting arena. Standing with them were the few teams who had made it past the forest. Based on the number of scrolls each team had handed in, it was clear they had had the same idea as Black Rain- eliminate as much competition as possible. There were only five teams in the room, coincidentally one from each major village.

Since Team 7 made quite good time, they were able to rest up for a bit. There was talk of a preliminary round of bouts to narrow it down for the real finals, but as things stood there was no need for that.

As these thoughts were breezing through Naruto's head, Hiruzen was making some speech about the exams building bonds between the villages or some such nonsense. Finally he handed the floor to a jonin named Genma.

"At first, it seemed as though we might need a preliminary round to narrow down the competition due to the large number of genin still left, but obviously Anko here did such a great job that that won't be necessary." The Snake Mistress was clearly very proud of herself; her wry smile told the crowd that much.

"You'll have a month to rest and prepare for the finals. It is suggested you use that time to sharpen your skills. You will face opponents in one-on-one combat, so you'll have no way to hide behind your team- it's just you and your opponent. Any questions? Good. We've taken the liberty of randomizing your names to determine the first round of match-ups. Here they are."

An observer could have heard a pin drop in the room as Genma took his time opening the slip of paper with the names on it.

"First match-up: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kurotsuchi." **(AN: I'm deciding not to make up last names for characters who don't have one in canon, just so you don't think it's an OC.)**The blonde perked up and scanned the room for his opponent. His eyes landed on her and he was immediately impressed by her good looks. They locked eyes. He blinked. She blushed and looked away. _First impressions and all that, gotta make Konoha and Black Rain look good!_

"Second match-up: Utakata vs. Han. Third: Shisui Uchiha vs Darui."

_Kami damn it, it's that kid from the forest. I can't even lie, he's got my number when it comes to elemental manipulation, and he's got advantages over both of my affinities. I'll have to talk to Obito-sensei about this._

"Fourth: Akaru Hayaku vs Akatsuchi. Fifth: Itachi vs. Raiga."

_Who the fuck? Kid from Kiri, huh. Looks like a total scrub, but those swords of his look pretty special._ Itachi thought as he glanced over to an excited Raiga.

"Sixth: Kankuro vs. Chojuro. Seventh: Yugito Nii vs. Gaara Sabaku. Temari will get a bye in the first round and face the winner of that match. Any questions? Thought so. You're dismissed."

Black Rain shunshined away in their usual showy fashion. Hiruzen shook his head. _Who taught those boys to be so over the top? _He was legitimately pondering this until it hit him and he chuckled. _Of course, Jiraiya-kun adopted one of them._

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_(One week later)_

Shisui had returned home from his daily training session with Obito. He was sitting in his room working on his chakra control when his father opened the door to his room.

"Tou-sama, if you wouldn't mind, I'm busy training."

"I don't care what you're doing, Shisui, I must talk to you about something."

The boy sighed. "Very well. What is it?"

"Have you gone to see Hokage-sama about that…_sensei _of yours?"  
"How many times must I tell you, _tou-sama, _that Obito-sensei is a fantastic teacher and I refuse to request a change simply because of your, quite frankly, completely ridiculous ideas of him!"

The father pushed his son against the nearest wall. Riyuki's eyes bore into those of his Shisui. "You will not disrespect me. That man is a poor excuse for an Uchiha. He refuses to reside with his clan, and he was a failure to begin with. I will not have my son be negatively influenced by his poisonous ideals!"

"A poor excuse for an Uchiha? A failure? Look at him! He's stronger than you ever were, tied for third-strongest ninja in the village with Kakashi-sensei behind Jiraiya-sama and Hokage-sama! And at least he's not a traitor to his village like you!"

_Smack. _Riyuki's hand still had considerable strength behind it. He wasn't quite that old yet. The slap knocked the spit out of Shisui's mouth. "How _dare _you call me that! Such disrespectful insolence. You are pathetic. You're perfectly aware of how the Nidaime Hokage ostracized us and how the Sandaime has done nothing about it. We are the Uchiha, the mightiest clan in the village, and its founders! They are the traitors! They have no right to treat us this way. I will convince the rest of the clan of this. Once Fugaku is on board, the rest will be sure to follow. When the Uchiha are united, no one can stop us!"

"Yes, tou-sama."

"Good. That traitor to our clan can train you for now, but I will find you a respectable sensei once the chunin exams are complete. Is that understood?"

"Yes, tou-sama."

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_(One week later)_

Hiruzen was in his office sorting through mounds of paperwork when he heard a knock on his door. He thanked Kami when it wasn't a boring old council member, but a young Uchiha that entered the room at his call.

"Why hello, Shisui-kun. What brings you here today? How are preparations for the finals? People around here are betting very heavily on you. No pressure, though."

"Uh, ok. They're going fine, but it's something much more serious that I came here to talk to you about."

This, naturally, made the old man's demeanor turn serious as well. He now noted the very serious looks on their faces. "Oh, I see." He activated the privacy seals in the office. "What's wrong?"

"It's about my tou-sama," Shisui explained. "He's planning…a coup against the village."

The Hokage's jaw dropped. "What? How? Why?"

"He is very unnerved by what he sees as unfair treatment of the Uchiha by you and the Nidaime. He sees placing us outside the village as an act of disrespect. But he also believes that the Uchiha clan should receive a cut of all profits that the village receives from missions, among other unique financial and political benefits."

"Yes, he has come to me several times about these issues. However, I've had to tell him that these are simply impossible to provide. Hashirama and Madara made it very clear that no clan would receive special treatment in this village before they even chose who would be the Shodai Hokage."

"Yes, I know. But he is now totally bent on launching this coup. Fortunately, Fugaku-sama has been very reluctant to go along with it, but I fear it's only a matter of time before his brother gets through to him. And once, he goes, the whole clan goes."

"I see. Well do you have something in mind to stop him?"

"Hokage-sama, Tou-sama is a very stubborn man. He will absolutely not yield to any manner of amicable talks."

"Then…the only option would be…"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. He must die for the sake of Konoha."

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_(3 days later)_

A team of three Konoha chunin walked through a forest in Cha no Kuni.

"Who do you think the client is? What a strange place to have us meet him."

"I don't know, all I know is he paid a lot of money to have an Uchiha and a Hyuuga as two of the team he hired."

"What was the job again? I forget."

The team captain was about to respond when from seemingly out of nowhere a barrage of snakes attacked them and ripped their jugular arteries to pieces.

An incredibly pale man with long black hair and a freakishly long tongue approached the bodies and took the eyes of his two prized hires.

"Ah, a main house member. What lovely luck."

The snake licked his lips.

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_(4 days later)_

Onoki the Tsuchikage stood in the middle of a forest, alone except for his two most trusted ANBU at his side. He had been waiting for quite some time when at long last the one he had been waiting for arrived. He was an incredibly pale man with long black hair and a freakishly long tongue.

"Why hello, Tsuchikage-dono. I was very honored by your message. To think mighty Iwa would seek help from little old me," he hissed.

The old man grunted in response. "Where is our other guest?"

As if on cue, another man appeared in a gust of golden sand, with red hair, clearly younger than the other men there, and with two ANBU by his side as well.

"Ah, hello, Kazekage-dono. It seems Suna is in fact interested in this little get-together," Orochimaru commented.

"Tsuchikage-dono and I are wondering only one thing, Orochimaru," the Suna leader asserted.

"Will you help us destroy Konoha?"

The snake licked his lips.

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"It seems you have the destructive aspect down," Kakashi commented, referring to the large craters surrounding his student. Itachi was panting harshly. "But the precision is lacking. Run it again."

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"It's certainly powerful," Obito observed as he inspected the large diagonal scorch marks on the huge boulder before him. Shisui was bending over with his hands on his knees. "But it's missing alacrity and unpredictability. Once more, you two."

"We got it this time, Sadzo."

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"What the hell kind of footwork was that? Kami, you're reckless as hell. Not only that but you're slow. Slow and reckless? Now that's one hell of a combination. Go again. Maybe I should just give up being your sensei now," Zabuza said in the most degrading manner possible. Naruto looked at the deep cuts on the practice dummy before him. The weights on his shoulders, arms and legs felt much heavier now than they had at the start of the training.

"I thought it was pretty good-"

"Again!"

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_(One week later)_

One week before the start of the finals, the kage of the five major villages began arriving in Konoha. It were these kage who joined Hiruzen in the council room along with their two most trusted ninja.

"Thank you all for joining me here. This is a meeting of kage unprecedented since the meeting of the Shodai kage of our villages so many years ago. I'd like to welcome a new face among us, Mei Terumi."

"Thank you, Hokage-dono. Fortunately, the kekkei genkai rebellion in Kiri was able to win out. The help you sent was invaluable to our victory. Kiri humbly thanks Konoha for all it has done to aid us."

"I have to ask why we're here," Ay, the Raikage, asserted. "Other than to kiss ass, if I may be so crude."

"You're right, Ay-dono. I'll get right to the point. The elemental nations are gearing toward war. This is simply a fact. I have gathered us here today to draw definitive lines of friend and foe. Onoki here has never been one to lie down at the sign of opposition, so it's quite clear to me that he will not yield, and nothing I say will sway him. Isn't that right?"

"The Namikaze boy cannot live. It is that simple. After what his father did to our country, none of my people will stand for it. The Raikage ardently agrees. We are the two countries with the largest militaries. Suna here is always low in numbers, and Kiri is fresh off a rebellion that has made it the weakest of the five villages by far. How do you expect to fare in a full-scale war against us like this?"

"I can assure you that we are more than prepared to handle you militarily. However, if you insist on not taking my word for it, I have no choice but to formally declare war on you. Konoha will not hesitate to make the first move, Onoki. Then again, you've made quite a few moves already, have you not?" the Sandaime Hokage said with a sharp look at his rival.

The Tsuchikage grunted. "I have no issues with warring with you, Hiruzen. This will all be over if you just hand over the boy."

"Absolutely not." He stood up and spoke with even greater authority than before. "I believe this meeting is over."

"So it is. Expect no mercy, Hokage-dono."

"Likewise."

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Naruto was strolling silently down a back street adjacent to his usual training ground on his way home. The training that day had been chill as he could use the rest before the finals started, so he wasn't sweaty as he normally was. His mind was drifting off to nothing in particular when he noticed a girl coming his way. They were the only two on the street.

It wasn't long before she came into focus and the boy recognized her- it was his long-time crush, the girl with the sexy, short, dark hair, and the soft, warm, inviting black eyes. Her body was cute, she wasn't overwhelmingly busty like Tsunade, which Naruto was a fan of. She wasn't exactly flat either, though- she had an athletic ass that the hormonal boy would murder fifteen people to squeeze. As these thoughts ran through his mind, he realized they were nearing each other and quickly gathered the courage to talk.

"Hey, you're Shizune, right?" _Total guess._

"Um, who the hell is Shizune? Wow, dick," she said in the brattiest manner she could and began to blow him off.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, I shouldn't have tried, Kami damn it, what was I thinking! _"No, wait-"

"Haha, I'm just kidding, it's ok. Yeah I'm Shizune."

_Ohhh my dear Kami, thank you, sweet Kami thank you, thank you._

"You're that Namikaze kid, right? Well, of course you are, you've got that legendary spiky blonde hair."

The Uzumaki grinned wide. "Yeah, that's me. It's kinda crazy going from nothing to something like a celebrity so fast, I'm still not completely used to people all recognizing me."

"Yeah." There was an awkward silence for a bit.

"So you made chunin?" he asked, gesturing toward her vest.

"Sure did, made it this last exam, the one in Kumo last year."

"Nice. I'm in the finals next weekend. I'm pretty much definitely going to win, so when I'm hoisting the trophy, I'll be looking for you in the crowd," he said in a jokingly confident way.

"Haha, someone's a bit cocky."

"It's not cockiness if it's true," he said with a grin.

"If you say so," she said with a smile as well.

"So," Naruto tried, "what brings you way out here?" _What a stupid fucking way to say that, who the fuck says that? I'm so fucking stupid what the fuck!_

"Oh, I'm headed to the training ground for my first time with my new sensei. I'm really excited."

"Oh yeah? Who's your sensei?"

"Tsunade of the Sannin," she said with more than a hint of pride in her voice.

"What? Baa-chan is in the village? And she's training you?"

"What do you mean Baa-chan? You know her?"

"Oh yeah, she visits me every so often. She's my godmother," he replied casually.

"What!? Tsunade of the Sannin is your godmother!?"

"I mean Jiraiya-sensei is my adoptive father and the Yondaime Hokage is my biological father so it's not _that _crazy…"

"Yeah, that's a good point. But still, Tsunade-sama is a legend and an inspiration to all kunoichi all across the elemental nations. It's every girl's dream to be trained by her."

"Wait just a second. Which training ground are you going to?"

"56, the one right there."

"And Baa-chan is meeting you?"

"Yep."

"Oh no."

"What's wrong?"

"That means that Baa-chan and tou-san…"

The massive sound of a crater forming in the earth erupted behind them.

"…are in the same place. Come on, we should probably check on that."

A brief run back to the grounds and they found an intensely angry Tsunade raising her fist up high, about to strike Jiraiya, who judging by the crater and his position seemed to have narrowly avoided the last punch.

"Baa-chan, if you could not kill tou-san at this particular moment I would really appreciate it. I mean I still need a sensei for the exam finals."

The busty member of the Sannin looked up toward the voice. "Naruto-kun!" She promptly ran over and smothered her godson in countless kisses. "Oh, it's so good to see you, it's been so long, and you're so tall and handsome!"

"Baa-chan, stop," he said with the utmost embarrassment as Shizune could hardly stifle her laughter at the scene.

"Oh, sorry, am I embarrassing you in front of your girlfriend? Oh, it's you, Shizune."

Now they both got red in the cheeks. Tsunade grinned. _Seems I've struck a nerve, _she thought slyly.

"Why don't you stick around, Naruto-kun. I've been meaning to teach you some real chakra control and medical jutsu, not whatever crap Jiraiya's been teaching you."

The boy was about to respectfully decline when he remembered the cute dark-haired girl next to him. "Yeah, sure, why not? Sounds fun," he said with a grin.

_I knew it, _the slug sannin thought confidently. _He would never agree to a training session with me under normal conditions, Jiraiya's poisoned him too much._

"Why are you back in the village, Baa-chan?"

"Sarutobi-sensei called me here for something urgent that you two brats aren't important enough to know about. The important thing is, I'll be in the village for a long while."

"Oh. Cool. Well, let's get to it, I guess."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Itachi was walking down a different back road in a different part of the outskirts of the village, similarly having just finished a light session with Kakashi, when he looked down an alleyway and saw something very…interesting. But in the most disturbing way. It was like a terrible car crash- Itachi wanted to look away, but he couldn't, no matter how much he knew he would regret it later. He jumped up on a nearby rooftop and masked his chakra signature.

Luckily for him, all he caught was his cousin zipping up his pants as a girl- _that's that Suna kunoichi_- got up off her knees from in front of him and stood up. He smacked her ass and they went off in different directions. No words, no nothing, as though it were understood that that was all that was going to happen from the start. As though she was _**fortunate**_ to_**be allowed **_to suck his dick.

_Since when is Shisui such a fucking player? Did he seriously just get head from that girl? What am I doing? Am I really this far behind? Naruto probably has like, 17 STD's by now! I have to do something, quick!_

In his panic he was looking around when his eyes fell upon what he swore to be a bandaged angel.

She couldn't have been more than a year older than him. Her silky black hair was thick, full and wavy, draping below her shoulders and framing her eyes. Their deep ruby color served to lend her a look of intensity when she wished them to; right now, though, all they did was leave Itachi unable to think straight.

_Kami, she's so…beautiful. I don't even want to do her, I just want to look at her and kiss her. Oh, Kami, did I seriously just think that? Am I really tripping over a ho right now?_

Despite his attempts not to fall head over heels for this girl, it was far too late. He was still on the rooftop looking at her as she trained in a nearby field. It was a lovely meadow with its flowers in full bloom, near-hidden in a thick grove of trees which were allowed to grow freely in this remote part of the village.

Based on the exercises she was doing, she was working on some very advanced chakra control. The Uchiha knew he'd kill himself later if he didn't say hi, but he didn't know how to strike up a conversation naturally.

_Ah, fuck it, I'll just wing it._

So without another thought he descended upon the field, making sure the girl noticed him. She turned and immediately recognized him.

"Oh, hey, you're Itachi Uchiha."

"Uh, yeah, do we know each other from somewhere?"

She giggled at the boy's awkwardness. "No, you're in the chunin exam finals. You and your team are the talk of the village."

"Oh, yeah, haha. Guess I'm still not used to everyone knowing me."

"I can imagine it's pretty crazy. I'm Kurenai Yuhi by the way."

"I know, you made chunin last year and you're already one of the best genjutsu users in Konoha_._"_ I think?_

"Yep, that's me."

_Thank Kami, total guess_, he mentally sighed in relief.

"It's pretty cool that little old me is known by such a big celebrity," she said with mock dreamy eyes.

"Haha, what can I say, I just have that effect on people," he said jokingly.

"So what do you need?"

"Well I was wondering if you'd help me with my chakra control and genjutsu. At this point I can only cast a genjutsu if the victim looks into my eyes, but people are bound to figure it out eventually. I need other options. And obviously, my ninjutsu would stand to benefit from better chakra control too. Since I hear you're something of an expert, I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me."

"I'll help you, but I need something in return."

"Believe me, I'll give you anything you want. I mean, not anything. But like, most things. Like I wasn't insinuating anything sexual. I don't have to clear that up, of course I wasn't. That sounded really weird, I'm sorry. Just act like I didn't say that. _FUCK THAT WAS SO AWKWARD! KAMI I'M SO STUPID!_

To his great relief, she burst into laughter, but not a deprecating laughter, just a type that showed she was having a good time.

_Her laugh is so cute and her smile is incredible. Damn, I'm crazy about this bitch._

"You're cute," she finally said. "Take me on a date and I'll help you."

The Uchiha's powerful eyes widened greatly. His jaw dropped. His heart stopped. "You…want to go on a date…with me?"

"Absolutely. You're handsome and from what I've heard, very smart and strong too. Why wouldn't I want to?" she responded in her sweet voice and with her lovely smile as she batted her eyes.

"Well, I mean, uh, as soon as the exams are over, I would love to take you on a date, Kurenai."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_(One week later)_

The hustle and bustle of spectators side-stepping through the rows to get to their seats in the stands, the anxiety of the gamblers, the yells and screams of fans, the need for every single person to share with every other person their opinion on who would win and why, and countless other miscellaneous noises set the audio track for the raucous crowd before the start of the long-anticipated chunin exam finals, easily the most anticipated one in years because of the great concentration of unparalleled young talent participating.

It was this vociferous scene that Black Rain and their sensei looked upon only a minute before the first match, Naruto's.

"Remember that no matter how you three perform, I'll always be proud of you," Zabuza reminded his team. "That said, if one of you doesn't win, or if all three of you don't make the semis, I'll be extremely disappointed and there'll be some fun consequences. Ok, I've got to go now, remember all I've taught you and you'll be fine. Have fun!" he advised and shunshined away.

Naruto promptly pulled some tags out of one of his ninja pouches. "Before I forget, you'll need these. I made them with tou-san, they're bijuu suppressing seals. Most of these jinchurikii have seals that are very well-made and there's virtually no chance of the bijuu escaping, but we really shouldn't let any of their chakra leak out at all, and it's better safe than sorry. That redhead from Suna though? Shiusi and I are fine because he's on the other side of the bracket, but Itachi, if you face him, you will absolutely need one of these. If you sense anything weird at all, get this on him ASAP. He's basically the most unstable jinchurikii of all time. You two got it?" They nodded in response.

"Naruto Namikaze and Kurotsuchi, report to the battlegrounds," a voice in the sky boomed.

"Ok, guys," the blonde in question said to his friends, "see you in, oh, five minutes." _I hope._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**So a very eventful chapter, the most eventful pre-finals month I have ever seen by miles. So basically, you're welcome.(Cocky much?)**

**For those who have read Nightfall by freowin, yes, I am stealing Akaru Hayaku from that story. However, he's different in that he has his sister's kekkei genkai. If you haven't read that story and don't know what I'm talking about, you'll learn in one chapter. Or, better yet, you can read that story and find out earlier…**

**Rate and review. **


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**The First Round: Losers and Losses**

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Naruto stood across from his opponent, Kurotsuchi of Iwa. The crowd was going positively ballistic in anticipation of the opening bout.

"Hey, hot stuff," the blonde boy teased with a wink.

"I'm going to slaughter you, Namikaze. I'll be the one to personally throw you into the gates of hell," Kurotsuchi said back as her hands balled into fists.

Naruto threw his arms up in a surrendering position. "Whoa! Baby, the only thing you need to be throwing is that pussy." She just looked silently outraged at the disrespect her opponent was showing her.

Genma intruded. "Are the fighters ready?"

"Yes."

"I'm ready, but she never will be."

The crowd fell silent. Seconds passed.

"Begin!"

Naruto immediately unsheathed the Tenmon no Tsurug and rushed at his foe. Kurotsuchi had been making hand signs but was surprised by his great speed and was forced to draw a kunai and engage in taijutsu.

His very first diagonal slice was heavily charged with wind chakra which sliced through the smaller blade like butter.

The kunoichi was caught completely off guard but still managed to jump backward in time to avoid a gash. Naruto didn't relent. He quickly brought his sword up and into a flurry of quick slices began his jutsu.

"**Futon: Blade Scythes!**" For every swing of his sword, a sharp extension of wind flew toward the Iwa nin.

Just in time, she got her jutsu off: "**Doton: Mud Wall!**"

_Perfect, now her vision is blocked. __**Shadow Clone Jutsu!**_

Three more Naruto's, whom the girl could not see, ran toward the wall. The first one jumped over the top of it, into Kurotsuchi's line of sight, and threw three kunai laced with explosive tags behind her. This forced her to pick one of the sides of the wall to run past in order to escape the explosions.

She picked the left, but the second she was past the wall, she was tackled by a clone which exploded before she could even react.

Jiraiya was watching and was impressed with the strategic prowess of his adopted son. _He used the lack of sight caused by the mud wall to his advantage. He forced her to run past the mud wall on either side by putting those explosive tags behind her, then ambushed her with exploding clones that he placed on both sides without her knowledge. Well played, gaki. _

Naruto eyed the destroyed rock clone of his opponent as his other shadow clones dispelled. _So she also used the mud wall as a distraction…interesting._ Naruto could not finish his thoughts as he turned around to block the kunai coming towards his heart but he was too slow.

"Ahh!" The kunai was now lodged into his heart as blood fell down his mouth. "Guess you aren't such hot stuff anymore. Maybe if you behave like a good little boy I can save your life and take you back to Iwa as my slave to do whatever…I…want," she finished as she brought her head close to Naruto's ear blowing wind lightly on his ear. Naruto coughed then smiled as he turned toward her ear and whispered. "That sounds so…"

The shadow clone dispelled and the real Naruto was charging at her back with a rasengan. "HOT!" He connected the powerful jutsu sending her spiraling into her own mud wall. She slumped over as Naruto began his victory speech.

"Sorry, but you don't know me at all, do you. Should have done your homework. Naruto of Black Rain falls victim to no woman's charm! Rare beauties drop for me like blossoms in a storm. It isn't in my nature to be duped by the wiles of women! When you've reached the stature I have…THE LADIES KNEEL AND WORSHIP AT YOUR AWESOMENESS!" Naruto took Jiraiya's infamous stance while moving his hair around in a circle.

Jiraiya had tears of joy in his eyes as his apprentice and son had taken up his mantle of ultimate manliness. Whereas Sarutobi could only sigh and sink further into his seat hoping people forgot that he was Jiraiya's mentor. Tsunade and Shizune, meanwhile, were angry as hell. Tsunade was ready to beat the Toad Sennin to a pulp for corrupting her godson. Shizune, however held her hand out as to hold back her sensei.

"What was that Naruto-kun?" Shizune's voice broke the awkward silence Naruto's speech created. Naruto stiffened like a board and look toward the crowd to save some face. "Ah, Shizune, I did not mean you! You are like a strong oak tree to these floating blossoms!" Shizune did not take this lightly.

"DID YOU JUST CALL ME AS UGLY AS AN OAK TREE?!" Her rage reached to an all-time peak. Naruto was just sputtering nonsense as he could not pull his thoughts together under the gaze of all the rage in her black eyes. Itachi took it upon himself to help his bro out, you know the bro code and all. He took a deep breath and projected his voice out into the stadium.

"WHIPPED!" The crowd roared in laughter at the young Namikaze as he now held his head down and left toward the competitor's box before Genma could declare him the winner.

Genma checked her and pointed to the sulking boy. "Naruto Namikaze wins!"

The crowd erupted in cheers. Tsunade smirked. _One match closer to all those ryo. I hope Naruto-kun doesn't fall victim to my gambling curse. _

Meanwhile, Onoki was silently fuming. _The Namikaze defeated Kurotsuchi so easily! He's become too strong. But Han is sure to advance and put him in his place._

Hiruzen turned to his fellow kage. "Not to worry, Kazekage-dono, Kurotsuchi performed quite admirably. Perhaps one day she'll develop into a decent kunoichi," he mock-consoled.

"Not to worry, Sarutobi-dono, I have a competitor coming up who is more than capable of handling that boy."

"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for it."

"No need to, here he comes."

"Next match: Han vs. Utakata!"

The two jinchuuriki were soon staring each other down inside the arena.

Meanwhile, Naruto returned to his team. "So I did pretty alright, right?"

"That took five minutes and seventeen seconds. I'm disappointed," Itachi sarcastically mused with a smirk.

"Begin!"

The ridiculously tall one with the huge build, Han, made the first move. "**Erupting Propulsion Fist!**" The Gobi jinchuuriki flew at his opponent with steam-enhanced speed, a powerful fist outstretched.

But Utakata used his deceptive speed to gracefully avoid the strike, by strafing to the left, then put his lips to what Naruto could only refer to as "some sort of pointy bubble-making thing." Out of it came several bubbles which popped right by Han's face, causing violent explosions.

For a bit, the Iwa genin was invisible, but soon he emerged from the smoke forming hand signs: "**Doton: Trapping Corridor!**"

Out of the ground came four thick walls forming a narrow rectangle that barely encased the two, so that they were in a hallway of sorts, then a roof to close them off completely.

Nobody could see anything that went on inside, but they did hear a yell: "**Erupting Strong Foot!**"

Then another, calmer voice promptly after: "**Acid Scattering!**"

For a few seconds, there was only silence, but then the walls fell and revealed an acid cloud just barely being stopped by Han, who was expelling his steam generously to keep it at bay. With the dropping of the walls, the cloud dissipated into the air.

_Used his steam to keep the acid-infected air away from him. Not bad, _Naruto thought.

The Rokubi jinchurikii kept his stoic demeanor, as though he had expected his foe to repel the attack. Shades of seriousness coated his face as he formed a bubble big enough for him to fit inside and it gently floated up.

_Guess he's trying to end it right here. _

Han was content to remain on the defensive for the moment as there was no way for him to reach his opponent while he was way up there. He had no idea that the match was over either way.

Once he was at a substantial height, Utakata used a strong water jutsu which resulted in the arena below him filling up with water which reached to Han's knees. After a long line of hand signs, Han listened helplessly as the Kiri ninja finished his jutsu: "**Acidic Bubble Barrage!**"

Hundreds of bubbles formed of acid lifted from the small lake Han was trapped in. "**Doton: Earth Dome!**" he yelled, hoping to buy some time to think of a plan. Everyone silently anticipated the next moves of the contenders, but their guesses were interrupted by the sound of screaming coming from inside the dome.

"Stop the match! Stop!" Genma yelled as the dome fell. Han was on his knees, in bad shape. The armor on his upper body was almost completely burnt away, and where he had had armor, his skin was only burnt. But his face had been exposed. The whole right side of his face was just black as far as the spectators could see. His blood-curdling screams seemed to echo through the entire village. Within seconds, the medics had rushed onto the field and carried off the still-screaming Iwa genin. The crowd was stunned.

_Gobi forgot about the water inside his little dome. What a shame. _

"Utakata wins," Genma yelled in a less-than-enthusiastic tone. Utter silence replaced the usual applause as he strolled to the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Onoki was fuming. He was visibly furious, although he said nothing. "I apologize, my fellow kage, but I must leave these exams early as I have some business to conduct," he barely managed to seethe.

"Oh, but you have one genin yet to perform! You can't possibly be mad about the outcome of this match, can you? I mean it must have been a fluke- after all, Kiri is the weakest hidden village! How could it possibly match up to anyone from mighty Iwa, especially a genin that you praised as being so strong?" Hiruzen replied oh-so-sarcastically.

Onoki had to shunshin away in order to avoid blowing up right there. The Hokage then turned to his ally. "A talented genin you have there. It's too bad he's facing Naruto-kun next match. He might have gotten quite far in the tournament," he said with a confident smile.

"Cocky, are we?" the busty Mizukage replied with a smile of her own. "We'll see just how your prized Naruto performs against some real talent, instead of that Iwa girl."

"So we shall."

"Next match, Shisui Uchiha vs. Darui!" By now the crowd had regained its bearings and so cheered wholeheartedly for the hometown kid. Soon, Darui was in the arena, but was alone with Genma.

"Where the hell is Shisui-ani?" Naruto asked Itachi.

"I have an idea," he replied with a heavy sigh and shunshined away to a secluded grove adjacent to the stadium.

He soon stumbled upon a blonde girl- _great_ _now it's the Kumo kunoichi, the_ _jinchuuriki!_- on her knees in front of his cousin in the middle of the deed.

"I'm close, Yugito-chan," Shisui said under his breath.

_Ok, it would be a seriously dick move to stop them right now. Golden rule and all that. _

So he closed his eyes and shut his ears, so to minimize the mental scarring, and soon enough he creaked one eye open and Yugito had gotten up- it was over.

He emerged from the foliage. "You done now? Your match is up, Shisui."

Yugito blushed heavily and ran off while the older Uchiha put his hand behind his head and scratched it nervously. "We were just, uh-"

"Yeah, I'm sure you were, now come on."

Two shunshins later, he had appeared inside the arena across from his foe and Itachi was next to Naruto again.

"He was getting head wasn't he," the Namikaze asked without looking away from a certain dark-haired kunoichi in the stands.

"Yep."

"You know, I might be getting-"

"Shut up, it's starting."

Genma looked at the two contestants. "Begin!"

Darui barely had time to draw his cleaver-like sword when Shisui was right in front of him after a shunshin. _So fast!_

He swung once and the Kumo genin blocked it, but the Uchiha disappeared almost immediately and reappeared behind his opponent and sent him flying with a kick to the back.

_He's faster than Akaru!_ Darui thought as he hit the ground. But soon he was up again. "**Raiton: Pack of Wolves!**" Three wolves made of lightning rushed toward Shisui, but he just disappeared and reappeared again, this time to his foe's right with a fist poised to strike.

This time Darui had seen it coming and ducked underneath, smashing his own fist into Shisui's gut and delivering a devastating spinning kick to his face, sending the Uchiha to the ground a few feet away.

_Guess I got a little reckless, _he mentally admitted as he wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth.

Mei was about to ask Hiruzen a question, but the sagacious old man had seen it coming.

"His fully-developed, three tomoe sharingan allows him to have the utmost control of his body and awareness of his surroundings," the Hokage explained. "It seems that in the past month, he has used this ability to master the shunshin in such a way that he can teleport to wherever he wishes indiscriminately. One might even call him Shunshin Shisui," he finished with a grin.

"What a powerful ability," the kunoichi replied, awed that a mere genin could be capable of mastering such a technique. _If this boy is so strong, I'm starting to worry about Utakata and Raiga's chances. Konoha has some extreme talent. Seems that it's on Kiri to catch up. _

The Raikage was thinking the same thing, but in a very different sense. _Damn it, he's found a way to be faster than all of our Swift Release users! Konoha has become far too strong. These boys are even stronger than I heard, _Ay thought, not realizing that the two Black Rain members who had participated thus far had barely scratched the surface of their abilities.

By now, Shisui had gotten back up. He shunshined toward his opponent again, this time going low. He feinted a leg sweep, which caused his opponent to end up in mid-air, vulnerable. In the blink of an eye he had shunshined behind Darui and stabbed the boy in the back with his katana.

For a split second the crowd went dead silent with shock. Then the Kumo genin dispersed. _Lightning clone again!_

This time the boy had the speed not to be utterly crippled by the trap, but he was still surprised enough to be left unable to shunshin for a time.

Darui knew this was his chance and took it without hesitation. "**Ranton: Laser Circus!**"

Several powerful beams of Suiton and Raiton chakra combined headed toward the vulnerable Uchiha. The immobility had spread throughout his upper body, so he couldn't make hand signs.

So Shisui closed his eyes and silently accepted his defeat.

The beams struck him and sent him flying into a wall nearby. Darui was overjoyed that he had finally defeated such a formidable opponent. _Alright, finally! Man, these guys from Black Rain are tough, what a drag._

He was about to call to Genma to call the match when his surroundings began to melt. His confusion was immense until reality fell upon him and he felt the cold steel of a kunai against his neck.

"Game over," a voice whispered in his ear.

"Shisui Uchiha wins!" yelled the proctor, with notably more enthusiasm than his last announcement.

The crowd exploded in cheers at the result of the match. Not only had it been a thoroughly entertaining and exciting bout, but Team 7 had won again, a delight to the overwhelmingly Konoha-filled crowd.

Meanwhile, the Kumo genin was still getting his bearings. "You casted a genjutsu? But when?"

"When you looked in my eyes right before that Ranton jutsu. I wasn't in as bad a shape as you might have thought," the oldest member of Black Rain answered with a kind smile. "Either way, it was a hell of a match. Maybe we'll face each other again someday." Without waiting for a response, he shunshined back up to the stands next to his team.

"Yeah, maybe…"

Naruto and Itachi were calmly awaiting their brother. "Ani, what took you so long?" Naruto asked as though he were bored.

"He was probably thinking about that brain he was just getting from that Kumo girl," Itachi answered with a smirk.

The older cousin was shocked for a second, but then just grew a smirk very similar to Itachi's. "I should've known you guys knew. Yeah, I've been getting pussy left and right lately. I didn't want to rub it in your faces and make you feel bad. _(Sigh)_ Guess it's too late for that, but not to worry guys, maybe a girl will suck your dick too, someday…but probably not, you ugly motherfuckers will be lonely forever. But you gotta think about it like a team player- I didn't just get _my _dick sucked, I got the _whole squads' _dicks sucked. I did it for the team, homie."

"Whatever, man," Itachi replied with a huge smile he couldn't hold back. "I have a date set up right after the exams are over."

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed. Shisui, too, was impressed. "You must've used a hell of a genjutsu on this chick to make her go on a date with _you_. Who is it?"

"Haha, no, no genjutsu. It's Kurenai Yuhi."

The other two members of Black Rain were left slack-jawed. "Kurenai Yuhi!? No fucking way!"

"You guys know her?" Itachi asked with an ever-bigger smile.

"She's like, the hottest girl in the village!" Shisui said. "Hell yes, we've heard of her!"

"Uh, second hottest."

"Whatever, Naruto. Way to go, nii-san! Just try not to fuck it up."

"Yeah, I'll try," the lucky Uchiha answered. "If Kurenai isn't, then who's the hottest, Naruto-ani?"

"Her name's Shizune. I'm training with her under Baa-chan every once in a while now."

"So you got a girl too! Is that the one you always had a crush on?"

"Yeah. She's even more beautiful than I remember."

"We'll see how beautiful she is when you get friend-zoned for life a week into it," Shisui said with a laugh, soon joined by Itachi.

"Whatever, man, you know I'm got it locked down."

"Oh, shit, look, the match is already over."

Akaru Hayaku had overwhelmed Akatsuchi of Iwa with his powerful Raiton jutsu, which had easily overpowered the weaker Doton of the other genin.

The crowd was quite sour at the brevity of the match, but even more so at the fact that storm clouds as black as night had found their way above the arena, and stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Next match is Raiga Kurosuki vs. Itachi Uchiha!"

Despite the poor weather, the crowd was elated at the mention of the final Konoha contestant. Before long, rain was falling upon the two opponents as they stood across from each other.

"I will give you a magnificent funeral, Uchiha."

"What?"

"Begin!"

Raiga drew his strange-looking swords. "**Raiton: Lightning Ball!**"

The self-explanatory jutsu sent a ball of lightning hurling at Itachi, who managed to avoid it, thanks to the sharingan.

"The conditions are perfect! I will give you the funeral of the century!" the seemingly crazed Kiri genin yelled.

Hiruzen was curious about the swords. Now it was Mei's turn to foresee an inquiry.

"Raiga bears the Kiba blades, one of the legendary swords of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of Kiri. These blades allow him to control lightning at will."

"To be given one of those swords at so young an age…"

"Yes, the previous wielder, unfortunately for him, sided with the loyalists in the civil war. And we all know how that ended up," she said with a smile.

Hiruzen returned it. "Indeed, we do."

At this point, Raiga was keeping Itachi completely on the defensive with **Lightning Ball**'s and **Raiton: Lighting Fangs**. The augmented jutsu came frequently enough not to allow Itachi any room to strike back.

"It is time!" the boy yelled. "Now you will have a glorious funeral like no other!" He held his blades up toward the sky, causing his opponent to hesitate in curiosity.

"Oh, no," Mei said with worry evident on her face. "Raiga, no, no, no!"

"What's wrong, Mizukage-dono?"

"He's about to use the ultimate technique of the Kiba blades, a technique which harnesses the power of lightning!"

"And this is a problem because…"

"Because it'll certainly kill Itachi! It never misses!"

The Hokage smirked. "I wouldn't have so little faith in Itachi-kun."

Mei was clearly still extremely anxious, but she decided she could do nothing about it anyway.

Just then, Raiga finished his jutsu. "**Raiton: Ultimate Lightning Burial!**" he screamed into the stormy air, now thick with raindrops so that it was difficult for the crowd to see what was going on.

But they certainly saw well enough to witness the yellow beam that fell from the sky and strike Itachi, who was standing still. Everyone in the area was shocked, save a few: Hiruzen, Kakashi, Obito, Jiraiya, Zabuza, Naruto and Shisui. The rest of the crowd was thinking the same thing- surely the Uchiha had died. Who could face the power of lightning head-on and survive?

Naruto lifted his hand up to his mouth as he yawned. "Boy, Itachi-aniki sure loves to milk the moment, doesn't he? Not a shred of modesty in that kid."

The entire crowd watched with baited breath as the dust around the young Uchiha cleared.

What the crowd saw elicited a thunderous round of applause from the audience, standing ovations and all, much larger than any preceding it.

There stood Itachi Uchiha, covered from above with a shield made of what looked to be blue lightning. Raiga was horrified, speechless. His most powerful jutsu, by far, had been easily stopped by this kid.

"You call that Raiton manipulation? I'll show you Raiton manipulation." Itachi lifted his hands up to the sky.

"**Begone with the thunder clap! Kirin!**" he shouted as his mangekyō sharingan spun darkly. Raiga swore that those eyes were vultures, picking at the remnants of his already-dead soul. The sudden darkness Itachi's voice sent a chill through the crowd.

A massive, blue lightning monster appeared from the clouds and barreled toward Raiga, who could only watch in awe as the beast swallowed him. It hit the ground and caused a force large enough to create a crater in the earth that could have held a lake, or shattered a mountain. The spectators were forced to brace themselves as large chunks of earth scattered all throughout the stands. Winds like those of a hurricane swept through the place.

Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The sky cleared, revealing a beautiful blue overcast. One could have heard a pin drop. The people were utterly silent. The spot where Raiga was once standing was now eternally scarred earth, without a trace of the genin on it.

Genma stalked out to the center of the arena. "Itachi Uchiha wins." Still the crowd was unable to move. To whisper a peep. The boy walked back to his spot by his team. Even the other two members of Black Rain were shocked.

Naruto decided he had to say something. "A-ani…"

"He was going to kill me, so I killed him instead. It's that simple."

"Don't you think that was…overkill?"

"He was _going to kill me, _so _I killed him__. _What don't you understand about that!?" With that he stormed off and shunshined away. Naruto was about to follow him when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Kakashi.

"Let me handle it. I think I know what's going on."

"If you say so," Naruto reluctantly answered.

Finally the crowd regained its bearings. Doton users were tasked with evening the ground again for the next fight. Hiruzen was in the kage section, trying to form an apology to Mei.

"It is alright, Hokage-dono," she said first. "Do not expect this incident to strain relations between our villages. Raiga was a loose cannon it is my fault for placing him these exams in the first place. I should have known he would go crazy. I endangered your genin; all he did was protect himself. I am however disheartened in losing one of legendary swords"

"Thank you immensely for understanding the situation, Mei-dono."

Every one of the four kage present thought the exact same thing: _A genin with an S-rank jutsu...how is such power even possible?_

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Itachi was sitting in a ball in front of a lake by the stadium, bawling his young eyes out. Kakashi walked upon this scene, immediately sitting down next to the boy and moving his head onto his own shoulder.

Itachi kept crying into his sensei's shirt, all the built-up emotions he had been holding back for so long, ever since Hayate's death, but even before that, manifesting themselves in the wet spots on Kakashi's vest. His lack of a real childhood, since he was forced to train constantly from day one. His oppressive father never truly caring for him. The death of the sensei he saw as a true father. And, most recently, the revelation that his entire clan would have to be killed, including his beloved mother, the only one who seemed ever to care for him. Fortunately, his precious little brother would live too, but it was still too much for a boy to handle.

Kakashi knew none of this. But he knew what it was like to lose family, and to deal with the emotional effects of the Mangekyo. Sure enough, the three-pointed pinwheel shone in the boy's eyes when he looked up.

"I…miss Hayate-sensei," he managed to choke out. Finally, about ten minutes later, the tears dried up. Itachi rubbed his eyes and looked out at the lake. A sad chuckle escaped his lips.

"I feel like a bitch on my period. I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei, this is…"

"Don't be sorry, Itachi-kun." They got up and before the boy could say anything, the ANBU had wrapped him in a hug. Itachi went wide-eyed in surprise, as he hadn't felt a hug from a father figure in…too long. He quickly buried himself in his sensei's chest. A few seconds later, the embrace was over.

"Thank you," he whispered as he wiped away a final tear and sped off back to the arena.

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During Itachi's and Kakashi's absence, Kankuro, the Suna puppeteer, had defeated Chojuro, the Kiri swordsman, with some trickery of the strings, as it were. Now the final match of the first round was going to take place.

"Next and final match: Yugito Nii vs. Gaara!"

While Yugito jumped down from her spot on the sidelines, Gaara chose to walk down, seemingly as slowly as possible.

Seconds later, all was ready. "Begin!"

"**Katon: Mouse Hairball!**" the kunoichi yelled and spat out a mouse-shaped fireball at her opponent. Despite the speed of the attack, a wave of sand seemed to appear out of nowhere and stop it.

Yugito was surprised, but pressed on nonetheless. She ran with very good speed at her opponent, attempting to overwhelm him with her quick, unpredictable taijutsu, but every strike she attempted was stopped by the sand. Gaara had yet to move an inch from his original position.

The girl tried countless more ninjutsu and taijutsu, but nothing seemed to work. He had yet even to move.

Ay was indignant, and turned to the Kazekage. "That boy is your son, correct? What is that jutsu!?"

"That is no jutsu. The sand acts completely on its own to protect him."

The shock on his face was not lost on the Kazekage, nor was the surprise on the faces of the other two.

It wasn't long before Gaara grew bored at the feeble attempts of his opponent.

When she was most vulnerable, Gaara extended a large hand of sand toward her. Her speed allowed her to avoid it- mostly. Her right leg and arm were caught, and the Ichibi jinchurikii decided he could settle for just a couple limbs.

"**Sand Coffin!**" The Nibi panicked as she tried to move but realized her arm and leg were totally trapped. She nearly cried as she knew what was about to happen.

"**Sand Burial!**"

The scream she let out was just even worse than that of Han. It seemed that Gaara was about to continue when Genma intervened. Even then, there was a moment of tension before he conceded and walked off. The medics hurried onto the field to carry off the Kumo genin. Ay fumed as his jinchuuriki had not only been thoroughly devastated but embarrassed. The Kazekage smirked.

"Gaara wins! And with that, the first round of matches of the chunin exam finals have been decided! To recap, the quarterfinals will consist of these matches:

"First, Naruto Namikaze vs. Utakata. Second, Shisui Uchiha vs. Akaru Hayaku. Third, Itachi Uchiha vs. Kankuro. Finally, Temari vs. Gaara. These matches will be held in one hour. Congratulations to all the quarterfinalists!"

The crowd might have been impressed and disturbed by that match had it not been for the horror of the previous ones.

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**I think I did a pretty good job with the fight scenes, but let me know how I can improve, as I'm always looking to do so. **

**I've already made this comment on Ill-Fated, but I want to make sure to tell you guys too- my man BarelySage has started a new, serious story called Something You Can't Ignore. The first chapter was a big hit, a bigger hit than either of my first chapters, which proves it's definitely worth checking out if my word isn't good enough for you. It's a unique twist on an abandoned Naruto that, well, you can't ignore. Please check it out. **

**Rate and review. **


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**The Quarterfinals: Black Rain Domination**

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Black Rain spent the time before the start of the quarterfinals in the stands with friends and family.

"I've never been more proud of you, Naruto-kun! You probably have all the ladies in this joint begging for you time already!" Jiraiya exclaimed sincerely.

"What can I say, I learned from the greatest!" the boy answered with equal, if not greater, energy.

The sage wrapped his adopted son in a bear hug and cried tears of joy. "Minato-kun would be so proud!"

Everyone in the area sweat-dropped, but none as much as Kakashi. _Something tells me sensei would not be proud of this…whatever this is. _

The only one who hadn't sweat-dropped was Tsunade, who instead overflowed with anger. "Jiraiya, you baka! How dare you corrupt Kushina's son like this!" she yelled and bonked him over the head.

An embarrassed Naruto made a subtle gesture to an embarrassed Shizune suggesting they get out of there, and she willingly complied. The two Sannin were too busy arguing about how to raise a child properly to notice or care.

Shisui talked about his performance and strategy for the next match with Obito, while Itachi searched for a certain ruby-eyed kunoichi. It seemed that his ninja training failed him as she managed to sneak up from behind.

"Hey, Itachi-kun," she said softly in his ear and stroked his arm.

"Kurenai-chan! I was looking all over for you," he responded and embraced her in a warm hug. She noticed this one was a tighter and longer than a normal one.

"Do you want to go somewhere quiet?" she asked with a look to the masses surrounding them.

"That would be really nice," he answered and held her as they shunshined away.

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Naruto and Shizune found themselves at the edge of the very same lake Itachi had visited earlier. They took a seat just by the edge of the water and began skipping stones.

Shizune's first one skipped no less than seven times. Naruto's made a "plop" sound and went no further than the initial contact.

The girl couldn't suppress a laugh as the boy pursed his lips in mock sadness at his failure.

"Wow, you suck," she said bluntly before her giggling finally tapered off.

"Good to know my training partner is so insensitive," came the reply with a snicker. "Besides, you're probably cheating and using your chakra or something."

"Haha, no, it's all about what you do with your index finger. Just find a flat rock and spin it as hard as you can when you let it go." She made another flawless demonstration. "See?"

"Oh, just spin it? That's easy!" Sure enough, the next try yielded three skips. "I did it!  
Thanks, Shizune-chan! I always wanted to learn how to skip stones."

Naruto had begun adding the suffix seamlessly about a week prior, but the girl still blushed lightly. _He's so cute. _

"Hey, random question," the boy began as he scanned the area nearby for a proper stone to toss, "but have you ever grown out your hair, or has it always been short?"

Suddenly Shizune became very self-conscious about her dark locks. She realized that boys most likely would prefer the long hair of, for example, her teammate Kurenai, but she had never bothered to grow it out just for that sake- most likely because she had yet to meet someone who's opinion she actually cared about. "Well, I guess it's always been short. Do you not like it?" She almost whispered this as she unconsciously ran a finger through it.

"Shizune-chan…" Naruto looked and formed a gentle smile. "I love your hair the way it is, but personally, I'll think your pretty no matter how you wear your hair. Just my opinion."

_He thinks I'm pretty!? No way! _Her blush deepened considerably, but she was relieved to see that her friend had resumed his stone-skipping. "Thanks, Naruto-kun."

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Itachi lead his new quasi-girlfriend to the very same clearing that Shisui had been making use of previously. _I hope that Kumo chick is a swallower, _he said as he searched the area for any questionable stains.

"Is there something on the ground, Itachi-kun?" Kurenai asked off-handedly.

"No, nothing." _Thank Kami that would have been awkward. _

The kunoichi took a seat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Are you feeling ok? I'm so sorry about that. It wasn't your fault, I mean that kid was clearly crazy."

"I'm ok. I talked to Kakashi-sensei afterward (_less of a talk and more of a silent therapy session) _and that helped a lot. I was just defending myself, but that doesn't change the fact that I definitely went overboard. That was…my first kill. And I knew he was much weaker than me." Itachi was noticeably downtrodden. He wrapped his arm around Kurenai and pulled her closer still to his side.

"That's just the way of the shinobi world. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions in a split second, and a lot of the time- in fact, the vast majority of the time- you're going to regret what you've done. But you do what, in that split second, you think is necessary to protect yourself and your loved ones. Besides, if something had happened to you, where else would I find such a strapping young man to take me on that date tomorrow?" she asked playfully.

She smiled further when she saw her words elicit a smile from the boy. "You're right, Kurenai-chan. You're so smart." He pulled her in for a hug, slightly more for the purpose of allowing himself a brief respite from his artificial joy than for showing his girlfriend affection.

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The time seemed to fly by before the next round began. Before long, Naruto and Utakata were standing across from each other in the center of the arena.

"Have to say, I honestly didn't expect to be standing here across from you, bubble-boy."

Genma interrupted before the Kiri ninja could remind his Konoha counterpart about the offer he'd made just before the written exam. "Are the fighters ready?"

Two simple nods gave his answer. For nothing but the sake of dramatic effect, the proctor held back his announcement for slightly longer than usual. The excitement of the crowd and the agitation of the genin before him were palpable.

"Begin!"

The two genin jumped backward and performed identical hand signs right off the bat. "**Exploding Water Colliding Wave!**" Both jutsu had the same intent- not to attack their opponent, but to fill the area with as much water as possible.

_Seems like they both think they have the advantage in Suiton over the other. Too bad for that Kiri kid that Naruto's is downright Nidaime-like, _Jiraiya thought with a large grin.

Naruto ended his jutsu first and shunshined toward his opponent, the Tenmon no Tsurug at the ready. The Rokubi took out his bubble rod to defend himself as he lacked any kenjutsu training.

The blonde's first strike was a basic diagonal slice, but its speed caught Utakata well off guard. He was forced to awkwardly lean back as he brought up his weapon. Picking up on his foe's lack of balance, Naruto feinted the strike and delivered a successful left kick to his fellow jinchurikii's shin. Now he was falling to the ground, so the sword came up and struck cleanly through its target.

The crowd held its breath yet again until the Kiri ninja dispersed into water and the original emerged from the small lake elsewhere.

_I have a feeling this kid will be really annoying. Might as well end this now with my trump card, since it wouldn't work on Shisui or Itachi anyway. _

After a few hand signs that nobody except a certain sage in the stands recognized, the boy released his chakra and initiated the jutsu. As he prepared it, the fans watched in great anticipation for this unique jutsu- then burst into laughter when absolutely nothing happened.

Mei found the scenario quite humorous. "It seems your prized Naruto can't even manage a jutsu correctly," she managed to get out between giggles. The Raikage was having a hearty laugh as well, but the Kazekage wasn't so naïve.

Hiruzen warned his Kiri counterpart, "I strongly doubt that Naruto would fail to perform a jutsu in such a way. Whatever this is, I have a feeling it will end the match."

Utakata was no fool either. He knew that the jutsu must have done _something_, but he had no way to know what it was, so he began the hand signs for his next jutsu.

Just as he was about to yell the name, he felt his back being cut several times by some invisible force. He hit the ground as he felt as though ten tons of bricks had hit his shoulders. He was now stuck to the arena floor, shocked beyond belief, despite his usually cool demeanor.

Naruto smirked and made the hand sign used to dispel clones. When he made it, two puffs of smoke formed behind the Kiri genin. The murmurs of confusion among the crowd were not lost on the boy.

"Wind clones," he yelled loudly enough for everyone in the area to hear. Now the murmurs only grew louder. Nobody in the area had ever conceived of such a jutsu. A clone made entirely out of wind, and invisible like it? That would be the jutsu of a jonin, not a genin.

"He won't be getting up anytime soon, Genma-san. Feel free to call it."

"Naruto Namikaze wins the match!"

Another win for the home team, and with such an impressive jutsu, energized the crowd to the highest point yet.

Sarutobi glanced over at his ally. "What was that about not being able to perform a simple jutsu?"

Her stammers elicited a laugh from the old man. "Yes, Naruto is impressive, indeed. However, don't blame Utakata, as clearly he had no chance."

Tsunade began mentally counting the ryo one by one, while Shizune cheered on Naruto further and Jiraiya smirked in content.

"Next match: Shisui Uchiha vs. Akaru Hayaku!"

_Alright, _the Black Rain member thought, _another goddamn lightning user, but at least this guy doesn't also have Suiton. I think…_

"Begin!"

Before the Uchiha could even set his stance to begin engaging his opponent, a blur passed in front of him and he suffered a strong right hook to the chin that sent him flying. _Swift Release…fucking hell. _

Akaru did not wait for his opponent to hit the ground to form the hand signs for one of his strongest jutsu. He was clearly trying to end the match as quickly as possible, since he had seen the Shisui's previous match and knew of his abilities.

"**Raiton: Black Lightning Panther!**"

"Akaru is my most prized pupil," the Raikage said, addressing his equals. "Not only does he have the prized Swift Release, but his mastery of Raiton manipulation is considerable- he already has Black Lightning under control, the highest level of Raiton manipulation."

Shisui calmed himself as wondered how he'd get out of this particular mess. Shisui had never been one to panic- he had that in common with the other Black Rain members. He ran through a string of hand signs with a perfectly peaceful look on his face.

"**Doton: Earth Dome!**"

Akaru confidently wondered what his opponent was thinking. Did he really believe that would stop his jutsu?

Sure enough, the panther obliterated the dome, revealing a decimated Shi- no, wait. The spot where he had been was empty. Where was he?

Akaru's answer shot up from the ground just behind him and left a serious gash on his right leg with his katana, the main proponent of the Kumo genin's prized kekkei genkai.

The Kumo genin had reaction time just good enough to avoid any more serious damage.

Kakashi smirked- it was like seeing a clone of himself. The earth runner jutsu was one that very few employed, but an incredibly useful one. Itachi had no affinity for it, and so struggled and before long left it as he was just too incompatible, but Shisui had managed to pick it up very quickly (as he did everything else) and to see him put it to use so successfully in this match was a reward in itself for the legendary Hatake.

Now Akaru was struggling to run properly at all, much less with his kekkei genkai. However, after that powerful Raiton move and his extensive use so far of the Swift Release, he was running relatively low in the chakra department. He decided he had enough for a couple more bursts of the kekkei genkai and one more black lightning jutsu.

Meanwhile, Shisui had not been just idly standing by: "**Katon: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**" The wide area covered by the array of small fireballs combined with his limited mobility left Akaru forced to use his kekkei genkai. It seemed that everyone in the arena except him knew this was nothing but a last-gasp attempt at victory- Shisui had this one all but in the bag. The Kumo genin rushed at his opponent with that usual great speed, but was naturally no match for the fully-developed sharingan of the Uchiha. At the precise second when he slowed down to a speed when he could manage a solid punch, Shisui shunshined right behind him and sent him flying to the left with a devastating kick to the ribcage.

When the boy finally landed, he was wheezing harshly and holding his left side, a pained expression manifesting itself on his face with every harsh breath.

"Genma-san, call the ma-"

"No! I can still fight, damn it! Don't underestimate me! **Raiton: Dark Beam Rain!**"

Ay would never voice his concern, but a watchful observer would have seen it written all over his face. _That jutsu is far too powerful for him! Where did he even learn that? He doesn't have the manipulation ability or the chakra necessary for it!_

Upon completing the hand signs, Akaru held his hands out. Shisui prepared to defend himself. Black chakra began to form in the boy's hand, a dangerously large amount, but it never took shape. The Kumo genin put more and more chakra into it, until it was the size of one of Naruto's favorite jutsu, **Giant Rasengan. **The Uchiha stayed perfectly still, however. This perplexed Itachi until he activated his own sharingan and inspected the boy performing the jutsu.

"Oh, Kami, that's very bad."

"What's up, ani?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Shisui's not attacking because he sees that this kid's chakra is all out of whack. He can't possibly perform this jutsu, it's too powerful for him. He absolutely has to quit right now, or he'll-"

At that very moment, Akaru's attempt at the A-rank jutsu literally blew up in his face. The large amount of chakra in the jutsu sent him flying at an incredible speed at the wall behind him.

Genma called the match as soon as possible so the medics could storm the field and get the boy out as quickly as possible. The spectators saw enough to know Akaru was very lucky to be unconscious, a fortune that had not befallen any other victim to that point. The combination of the density of that lightning, the power of that jutsu, and its proximity to him meant that the boy would never be a ninja again- hell, he would be lucky if his body was even functional after that.

Another tragic ending resulted in the crowd only awarding light applause to the oldest member of Black Rain. He was soon back with his boys.

"You should probably quit now, Naruto. I'd hate to kick your ass in front of your new girlfriend," Shisui joked.

"Bitch, the finals are as good as mine. Watch Itachi lose to this cat costume scrub and make me fight the creepy Ichibi kid in the final. That would be just my luck man…"

Black Rain and Sand Sibling were now both present in the arena.

"I'll make you pay for the things you've said! You're just a stupid kid!"

Itachi responded with utter silence and a look in his eyes that showed he had seen terrible things and promised the same for Kankuro.

"If you're trying to look tough, it's not working!" the puppeteer said in a notably less strident and confident voice.

If looks could speak, Itachi's would've said, _I will separate your limbs from your body in such a way that you will be glad when they're finally gone. _

Kankuro wasn't quite the proverbial puddle the Uchiha had hoped he would due to his experience with killer intent, but was still thoroughly frightened and sweating profusely. _Kami, this guy is worse than Gaara!_

"Begin!"

The puppet began with shooting poison senbon out of its mouth at the sharingan wielder. Ducking and weaving got the boy out of that predicament, but now the puppet closed in on him with alarming speed and dropped several balls covered in explosive tags on him.

Kankuro was sure for a second that he had succeeded, but the smoke cleared to reveal a large fireball aimed at him.

A panicked dash away and he evaded the attack, but the Uchiha immediately shunshined at the puppeteer and lifted a fist to strike him solidly across the face.

Until, that is, Kankuro's body revealed its true form as a puppet and pulled him into its "stomach".

"Too bad for you, I got orders to kill any of you Konoha kids if I got the chance. This is what you get for talking trash to someone way better than you. Say goodbye."

"I would reassess the situation before doing anything drastic if I were you."

"What are you talking ab-"A look of horror crossed the puppeteer's face as he found himself inside his own puppet, blades pointed at the ready at him. He was more embarrassed and humiliated than he ever had been.

"Itachi Uchiha wins!" Genma yelled with remarkable enthusiasm. Kankuro carefully let himself out of the puppet and hurried out of the arena and noted the incessant laughter emerging from the crowd mixed in with the thunderous applause. He didn't bother to ask his opponent when he had applied such a fearsome genjutsu, but he could guess that the almighty sharingan had had something to do with it. He consoled himself with the realization that that boy would soon meet his end at the hands of his brother.

Before the next match could be called for, a man, presumably a Suna jonin based on his armor, and with a white rag on his head, whispered something to Genma and went back to his spot in the stands. The proctor looked to the stands as though waiting for some signal, nodded when he received it, and readdressed the crowd.

"The next match was to be Gaara vs. Temari, but Temari has forfeited. Therefore, the semifinals are as follows: Naruto Namikaze vs. Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha vs. Gaara. Due to the length of the matches being of an unforeseen length, we are on a time crunch; as such, contestants only have ten minutes before the next round begins. Thank you for your understanding."

The boys couldn't help but groan. _Naturally the fucking Suna kid's teammate quits, so he's all rested up, while we only have ten minutes between matches. This is such bullshit. _

"Damn it, guys, we're ninja. Things aren't always going to go our way- in fact, they almost never will, but we have to succeed anyway. We have no right to bitch like this," Naruto implored his two brothers.

The two Uchiha sighed. "You're right, ani," Itachi admitted. "At the same time, you two aren't the ones who have to fight the guy who's all rested up."

"I swear you'll do fine, Itachi. Listen, I'm willing to bet a shit ton of ryo that his sand is weak to Raiton, which you're totally awesome at," Shisui observed.

"Yeah, I figured that, but I'm still kind of worried. I mean you saw what he did to that Kumo chick, you know, the one who sucked your dick."

"Oh, shit, I totally forgot about that. She was promised me another round, too, damn it…"

"You're sick."

"Sue me."

Naruto decided to interject before one of them said something to set off the other. "Uhm, couldn't you just use your Katon? That would turn his sand into glass."

"…"

"…"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one ani, good one. For a second there I was worried you were playing _waaaayyyy_ too much Minecraft. Like, that's not how that shit works, homie, hahaha," Shisui said in between torrents of laughter.

"Kami, but the sad thing is, you know there are the people out there who actually think that. Faith in humanity obliterated," Itachi said as he hung his head in mock shame.

"Well, we should probably go talk to our both of our sensei, Shisui-ani. Good luck on your match, Itachi."

"You two try not to kill each other now," the other Uchiha responded with a smile.

Hiruzen had seldom been as pleased in all his years as Hokage as he watched his peers frowning and worrying about the state of Konoha compared to their own villages.

"Not to worry now, fellow kage. You shouldn't be so down on yourselves; it's just that Konoha is so excellent, we represent an unachievable standard for strength."

Ay snarled and hardly tried to hide it. "I'll be excusing myself now. I'd like to check on Akaru. I hope the rest of the exams go well for you." With that he shunshined away with his two trusted bodyguards. No matter how the exams went from here, every major hidden village had this much cemented in their minds- Konoha was far stronger than they had anticipated.

The two Black Rain members each got a brief strategy talk with their respective sensei before the match…but not really.

"Tou-san told me I should be able to work out a strategy myself, especially since it's you, because he's not always going to be around to hold my hand," Naruto sneered once they had entered the arena.

"Obito-sensei said the same thing."

"Hn. I don't need help to kick your ass anyway."

"Likewise."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Stupid."

"Dumb."

"Fag."

"Homophobe."

"Heterophobe."

"That's not even a word, dumbass."

"Shut up. Bitch."

"Begin!"

And the two grey-cloaked warriors met with a clash of katanas…

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**Sorry if this was **_**kind **_**of a disappointing chapter, but we had some romance moments and some cool abilities on display, so you can't be too disappointed, and you know the next one will be totally awesome.**

**The first couple of times it was really funny, but it's becoming pathetic how many people honestly believe that you can create glass just by lighting sand on fire. Believe me when I say it's a lot more complicated that that. I felt the need to make fun of those people. **

**So my man BarelySage is a total review whore. He's on his third chapter of Something You Can't Ignore and he's already beat Ill-Fated (even though I'm reluctantly willing to admit that it deserves the attention). Leave a comment telling how angry you are about that…?  
**

**Ah, fuck it, it was worth a shot. **

**Rate and Review.**


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**The Finals: Odd Man Out**

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The two grey-cloaked warriors met in a clash of katanas. Shisui was well aware of the powers of the Tenmon no Tsurug- if he suffered such much as a scratch, the match would be all but over. However, he did have the advantage of the sharingan. Shisui's hesitation but Naruto's much lesser awareness served to even out their respective kenjutsu advantages, leaving it all up to skill.

The blonde, naturally, was aggressive right off the bat. He charged with reckless abandon, seeming to have forgotten all about his friend's newest ability. Sure enough, the Uchiha immediately took advantage and shunshined directly behind Naruto as soon as the boy took a swing at him.

But as he readied a kunai to disable his now horribly off-balance opponent, the target suddenly disappeared- Naruto was now behind him and swinging his sword at the boy's back. However, Shisui's sharingan allowed him to act more quickly than usual, and his speed got him out of yet another bad situation.

"How'd you get behind me like that, you slippery whore?" Shisui, who was now standing a good distance away from his opponent, inquired reverently.

"I dropped a shuriken for me to substitute with at the start of the match. You've got moves less original than a feature on iFunny."

"Ooooooohhhhhhhh," the crowd chorused, voicing how impressed they were at the burn.

"Oh, yeah? Well at least I get bitches. Your girl so ugly she stopped the Shodai Hokage from getting wood."

"OOOOOOHHHHHH!"

"SHISUI I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!" The blonde furiously ran through some hand signs as the crowd continued to laugh and Shizune slowly sank into her seat. "**Summoning Jutsu!**"

Gamakichi appeared in a whirl of smoke. "Kichi, Shisui's done it, we're fucking killing him. That's it. I'm done. It's over. Can't do it anymore."

"Did he say something about that girl you talk about all the time?" Naruto blushed heavily, which further exacerbated the crowd's raucous laughter, while Shizune blushed until her face was deep red and sank even lower into her seat.

Shisui managed to get his own jutsu off in between his own hearty laughter. "**Summoning Jutsu!" **Sadzo made his own, notably noble appearance.

"Alright, Sadzo, it's time."

"Excellent, Shisui-sama. I am eager to test our prowess. Wait, is that…a toad!?" A low growl could be heard from the usually polite wolf.

"A wolf summon!? Oh, Kami, that's not good," Gamakichi muttered under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Shisui and Naruto asked in unison.

"Those damn toads left us to die!"

"It wasn't our fight and you know that!"

"That's of no consequ-"

"Ladies, ladies!" Shisui yelled. "I'd tap you both if you had paper bags on your heads. Let's settle this later."

Meanwhile, Naruto and Gamakichi were both finishing a jutsu: "**Exploding Water Colliding Wave!**" Now the water was up to the thigh instead of up to the waist.

"**Collaboration: Howling Halo Dance!**" Shisui and Sadzo, in flawless sync, shunshined hither and yonder to random locations in the 360 degrees around the Namikaze and his summon. The Uchiha would swing his sword and a wave of fire would emerge from it, while the wolf would augment the flame with a futon howl.

"**Collab: Expanding Vortex!**" A small typhoon of wind and water surrounded the two and got larger and larger until it exploded and an impressively large wave shot out in every direction. The other Black Rain member frowned as this was one of the very few ways to stop his jutsu. He and his summon protected themselves with an augmented fireball.

"Sadzo, handle Gamakichi, I'll take Naruto-bitch."

"Yes, Shisui-sama," the wolf answered, rage tainting his tone, then hurried off with his tremendous speed. Soon the two summons were engaged in an impressive battle fueled largely by ages-old grudges handed down by scarred ancestors.

"Seems like those two have some kind of score to settle," Naruto observed. He also caught a glimpse of the crowd. Most of the civilian fans were rabid with excitement, while the shinobi were largely content with silent enthrallment. The two shinobi on display here were quite a lot closer to jonin level than genin. This was a match that would not soon be forgotten.

"Seems like it." The Uchiha smirked a strange smirk as he looked at his friend.

They both began forming hand signs at the same time, and ended up with very similar jutsu: "**Suiton: Water Dragon Bullets!**" "**Doton: Earth Dragon Bullets!**"

The two dragons seemed evenly matched at first, but the terrain fell to Naruto's advantage due to the abundance of water and ended up pushing the other one directly toward its creator, seeming to drown Shisui in a cascade of mud and rocks. The Uzumaki was about to celebrate when kyuubi stopped him.

"_**He's still fit to fight," **_the fox pointed out. _**"A word of advice- never count an opponent out too early, especially an Uchiha." **_He added a grunt as if out of habit.

"_You haven't talked in a while."_

"_**Haven't had a reason to," **_the beast responded with a shrug after a slight hesitation. _**"I don't starve for companionship like you weak humans do."**_

"_Sure you don't. Let's catch up sometime. It's been too long, buddy."_

"_**I told you not to call me that! Consider this the last time I help you in these exams," **_the kyuubi said with an air of finality and cut the connection.

Sure enough, Shisui emerged from the rubble almost without a scratch. "It'll take a lot more than that to get me down."

Suddenly, the Uchiha's barely existent smirk turned up a great deal, and a very confident look graced his demeanor.

Naruto was about to wonder what the smirk and look were about when he realized- he was looking at Shisui's look_. _He had been careful to avoid eye contact with Shisui for the entire match thus far, but he had gotten too comfortable. The Uchiha launched his genjutsu in that split second. _Game over. _

But instead of being caught, Naruto dispersed into water.

"What!?"

"Well done, ani," a voice from behind answered. "You've forced me to use one of my best jutsu. Too bad this'll have to end now. It was fun while it lasted."

"Don't be so arrogant, Naruto. It's a bad idea against someone better than you."

The blonde ignored the response. "Kichi! You're done here. I'll have something special for you next time I see you."

The toad was panting and had cuts all over his body. His look was clearly one of gratitude. "Thanks, boss."

"You too, Sadzo. You've done well." The wolf was in similar shape to his amphibious counterpart. He simply nodded. Two puffs of smoke later, the two Black Rain members were the only fighters again.

"As I was saying, sorry, Shisui, but this is over now." The Uchiha hesitated to do anything hasty since he was unaware of the nature of the jutsu.

Naruto formed several hand signs and put both his hands on the surface of the water. "**Suiton: Infinite Water Clone Barrage!**" Immediately three water clones appeared from the water around Shisui and attacked him.

The Uchiha dispatched those easily enough, but they kept coming without end. _As long as this water is around, he can form as many water clones as he wants, whenever and wherever he wants. I've got to get rid of this lake._

With blazing speed he ran through some hand signs: "**Doton: Tunneling Earth Trap!**" Several large holes going very deep into the earth formed throughout the field, causing the water to drain out.

"I…told you…not to be…cocky," Shisui mumbled between heavy pants.

"Looks like you're low on chakra, buddy. Better surrender now."

"Not…a chance."

Naruto sighed. "Fine, have it your way." He rushed forward with Tenmon no Tsurug and three shadow clones at the ready.

_Damn you and your infinite fucking chakra, Naruto!_ The oldest Black Rain member was now running through his options. He quickly realized there was only one- the Mangekyo. But he wasn't supposed to be using it at all, much less in front of all these people and _on his friend. _So Shisui frowned and raised his hand. Chakra exhaustion was no joke, and he was no fool. "I surrender!"

Naruto stopped in his tracks. Genma grabbed the blonde's hand and lifted it like a champion boxer's. "Naruto Namikaze wins and advances to the final!"

The entire crowd were off their feet, going absolutely insane. Even the dignified clan heads were standing and applauding, more for the show of power between the two, showcasing Konoha's power, than for the victor. Hiruzen smirked, Mei was shocked and the Yondaime Kazekage rubbed his temples, wondering whether it was a good idea to betray Konoha as he had planned. Fugaku Uchiha and the clan elders wore deep-set frowns, but those were soon erased by hope in the form of Itachi. Riyuki's never truly disappeared.

Meanwhile, Naruto was basking in glory. He turned to Shisui to signal the crowd to acknowledge him as well, only to find him already gone. The Uchiha was already limping out of the place. Soon Obito joined him.

"How do you feel, Shisui-kun?"

"Fan-fucking-tastic. I can't believe this…"

"You know Naruto has quite an unfair advantage. I mean really, you were helpless. Although I'm sure Itachi-kun could defeat him."

The boy glared at his sensei. "I'm Shisui Uchiha. I should be able to beat anyone. Give me a bit to rest, then we're starting training as soon as possible."

"Oh, but wouldn't you like to watch your friends?"

"Fuck them."

Obito smirked. "As you wish, Shisui-kun."

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Itachi and Gaara soon made their ways to the arena center. There was more fear than anything arising from the crowd despite the unimposing figure the small redheaded boy cut. It seemed the least fearful person in the arena was Itachi himself.

"I will kill you, Itachi Uchiha…kaa-san thirsts for your blood!"

"Bitch, you and your weak ass bijuu can eat mad Uchiha dick."

"Kaa-san, he knows our secret! Now he really must die…"

Genma decided it was a good idea to get out of there as soon as possible. "Begin!"

Neither contestant budged an inch at first. Gaara was arrogant and simply waiting for his opponent to screw up so he could literally put him in a coffin. Itachi was finishing up the plan he had begun formulating. While Naruto's genius was one of improvisation, Itachi preferred to plan ahead. A lot of the reason why Naruto could simply wing it when he fought was because of his immeasurable chakra reserves. Itachi's were quite large, certainly nothing to shake a stick at, but he still didn't have that type of freedom. In any case, he preferred to end a fight sooner rather than later.

He soon finished his plan and began its execution. He made two shadow clones. At this stage, he could make upwards of five if the situation called for it, but he had decided he needed them to have a respectable amount of chakra.

They surrounded the still-immobile Suna genin and launched a familiar jutsu: "**Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Each one of the hundreds of shuriken was laced with an impressive amount of lightning chakra. Sure enough, a shield of sand surrounded Gaara and, even with the lightning added, the shuriken pierced through the sand but lost all momentum and simply dropped once past. But the Uchiha smirked nonetheless, as that was all he needed.

All three Itachi's converged on their opponent. Gaara remained still, and was even so audacious as to meet the sharingan eye-to-eye. He was caught in a genjutsu for a split second, before Ichibi quickly disrupted it with an influx of his own chakra. However, that had been enough time for both clones to complete their objectives. For that very short time, Gaara was inactive, allowing them both to safely substitute inside the boundaries of his sand dome. One of them drew his katana, laced it with more lightning chakra than Itachi had ever put into anything, and sliced Gaara's head off in one quick motion; the other slapped the bijuu sealing tag from Naruto onto the boy's back, just in case.

Before the sand could drop, Itachi threw a genjutsu over the scene to make it seem that Gaara's body was in one piece. There were, inevitably, despite the Hokage's warnings, young children in the audience, none of which needed to see such gore.

Even as he formed the genjutsu and the sand fell, the boy considered what he had just done and why. His first kill had come no more than an hour ago, and now all of a sudden he was some seasoned vet, protecting others from the true nature of shinobi life? Was it truly necessary to kill this boy? Sure, he was an unstable jinchurikii who had clearly voiced his desire to kill, but he had shown no outward signs of violence toward Itachi himself. Then again, he had attempted to kill that Kumo kunoichi. Yes, surely it was his subconscious protecting him- this had been a dangerous, cruel boy, and both Itachi himself and the world around him were safer now that he was gone.

These empty self-assurances drifted through his head as he accepted the cheers of the audience with a glazed look on his eyes. He was in a faraway place. Genma made some announcement which resulted in the arena emptying, but he remained in his spot.

Eventually voices faded into his consciousness. "Ani…ani! Come on, man, snap out of it!"

"Huh? What?" Itachi looked around to see that the stadium was completely barren except for Naruto, Shizune, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Kurenai and himself. "What happened?"

"You've been completely unresponsive for about ten minutes. I was about to get the nearest medic to come check you out," Kakashi explained.

"What…"

"Shizune, run a diagnostic jutsu on his head," Tsunade told her student, without even consulting Itachi. The girl nodded and performed the necessary hand signs. Soon a green aura was hovering around her hands and Itachi's head.

"But what about the final?" the Uchiha implored, seemingly ignorant to the examination taking place.

"Wow, ani, you really were out of it. Almost makes me feel bad that I have to kick a mentally impaired man's ass. The final is at 8:30, that's about three hours from now."

Itachi maintained a perplexed face while Shizune finished her diagnosis. "Nothing wrong. Probably just trauma-induced. I think this is more a job for a psychologist or a therapist."

"A therapist!? Oh, Kami, I'm perfectly-"

"Don't say you're perfectly fine. You did a number on that Suna kid," Jiraiya observed.

Suddenly realization struck Itachi. "Oh, no! I killed our ally's jinchurikii! Goddamn it, the Kazekage must be seriously pissed! Wasn't that his son, too?"

"Right on two counts," the sage continued, "but wrong on the third. It was their only jinchurikii and the Kazekage's son, but he was far from angry. In fact, he was relieved. My spies have been telling me that they regard Gaara as some sort of failed experiment and have been trying to kill him off ever since."

"That's awful," Naruto said under his breath.

"It's the way of the shinobi world, gaki. Come on, we better get some distance from your sworn enemy over here," the sage said with a glance at Itachi. "Hime, Shizune-chan, why don't you join us for a bite to eat?"

"As long as you're buying, you old pervert." Their argument continued as they led the way while their two students took up a position a safe distance behind them and talked amongst themselves.

Kakashi, meanwhile, quickly realized how awkward a three-person dinner between he Itachi, and Kurenai would be.

"Uh, Itachi-kun, why don't you meet me here an hour before the match and we'll go over strategy?"

"Uh, um, sounds great, sensei. See you then." The ANBU shunshined away.

Now boy and girl were alone. Itachi looked toward the west and saw exactly what he had been hoping for. "Hey, Kurenai-chan, would you…maybe want to watch the sunset with me?"

Her answer began with a beautiful smile. "You're so romantic, Itachi-kun. I would love to watch the sunset with you."

Itachi wrapped an arm around her and smiled right back. _She makes me forget…_

The doves that had been hopping around the field took flight, set forth by a burst of chakra.

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The four hours went too quickly for two certain pairs of young ninja, but not quickly enough for the rabid attendees of the match that would live on in the memories of all those present for decades to come. Grandparents would tell their children, "I was there when Itachi Uchiha and Naruto Namikaze faced off in the chunin exam final. I knew after that day they would be the greatest heroes Konoha has ever seen…"

Of course, a healthy dose of exaggeration and foreshadowing might be present in their tales, but what is a story of times past without such things?

Excitement built up as the last few stragglers took their seats. The match was broadcast on TV in every bar and home in Konoha, and all the largest cities in Hi no Kuni. The floodlights set up around the arena were now on in full power, expelling every shadow in the place. Perhaps this served as a metaphor- no trickery would determine this match, nor had it determined the matches thus far. The best genin would walk out of that arena victorious, no matter what. Neither would there be a tie- the look on both Black Rain members' faces when they met at precisely 8:30 told as much.

"Hey, ani," Naruto called.

"What's up?" Itachi answered.

"No matter who wins this…I love you."

"I love you too, ani. I think after this, we'll be men, not boys. Know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I agree. This is different from when we made genin. This is more important, I guess. It means more."

"Did you see Shisui-ani?"

"No, I didn't. Guess he's not happy. Knowing him, he's probably training."

"Too bad. He's missing history. That's what this match is, you know- history in the making. People will be talking about this long after we're dead and gone. You know, once we're widely known as the greatest ninja ever to live."

"Haha, yeah, of course. Not _if_, but _when _that happens, the people who were here to see this will be very glad they were."

"You two ready?" Genma intruded. "No pressure, but everyone here is expecting a match for the ages."

"Black Rain is always ready for anything," Naruto answered with a grin as he lowered into a fighting stance and drew Tenmon no Tsurug.

Itachi formed his own grin and lowered into his own stance. "Damn right we are."

"Excellent." Genma's hand rose and the crowd fell silent. A few seconds later, the most-anticipated word for, for many, several months was called out.

"Begin!"

For quite a while, the two seemed to be just staring at each other.

"Enough with the tricks, Itachi. Your non-sharingan genjutsu still sucks."

"You're one to talk."

Naruto smiled. "Fair enough. I had to at least try, you know. But I guess I should play more to my strengths." He sat down and made a very familiar hand sign. Fifty shadow clones appeared in as many puffs of smoke.

Itachi frowned deeply as he activated his sharingan. He realized that he should probably fend off the clones with ken- and taijutsu, but that would leave him very vulnerable to a cut from the Tenmon no Tsurug, and once that happened, the match would be all but over. His best option, then, was to dispel the clones by landing a solid hit on their creator.

Meanwhile, Naruto was peacefully sitting down, listening to the crowd yell their advice and encouragement, expecting his clones to do all the work. Then a gray blur passed by and landed a kick to his face that made his head feel like it was about to separate from the rest of his body, following that by throwing a shuriken at a wind clone just behind.

Two puffs of smoke rose up. Itachi turned toward the large group just in time to see a fine but obviously powerful beam of wind aimed at his chest. He managed to avoid a direct hit, but it still left a long cut on his left side, albeit a superficial one.

_He's hiding himself among the crowd of clones so that even my sharingan can't detect the real one, and even put a decoy here. Any jutsu of a scale large enough to dispel all of them would be a serious drain on my chakra. Since when does Naruto use such indirect tactics? I expected this match to consist of him chasing me around the arena with every offensive ninjutsu he has. _The Uchiha smirked. _Too bad he's still an idiot. _

He ran toward the crowd with his katana out. He sliced a couple as they neared, then stopped precisely in the center of the crowd. Sure enough, all fifty jumped at him. To most of the crowd, it seemed certain that Itachi would be overwhelmed. He grinned again, his three tomoe sharingan allowing him to wait until the very last possible second before launching his jutsu. Naruto finally realized that haphazardly swarming his opponent was probably a bad idea, but by then it was far too late.

"**Chidori Senbon,**" Itachi whispered. The village witnessed countless senbon formed with blue lightning pierce through every single Naruto. A large puff of smoke formed that obscured the result of the attack, but a collective exhale swept through the crowd, who had been unconsciously holding their breath, once it cleared.

The original Naruto had a thick wall of wind in front of him. The elemental advantage, more than anything, was what saved him from those lethal senbon.

"I almost had my hopes up for a second there," Itachi said with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

"You know it'll take a lot more than that to get rid of me." Naruto made another shadow clone. Both he and his clone started making hand signs, as did Itachi.

"Challenge accepted! **Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu!**"

"**Suiton: Water Encampment Wall!**"

The two jutsu met and created a thick fog. Itachi could easily see through it, however, which allowed him to witness Naruto performing a jutsu which would fill the arena with water.

_If he fills the place with water, I'll be at a huge disadvantage! _"**Raiton: Electric Snake Jutsu!**" Itachi stuck his fingers into the ground and a stream of lightning even with the ground shot at the original Naruto.

But the clone was still around and jumped in between: "**Futon: Aero Shield!**"

_I didn't take into account how annoying it would be that he has the elemental advantage over both my affinities…this isn't looking good. _

The place was full with shin-high water ridiculously fast. Itachi decided that he couldn't let Naruto get any ninjutsu off, and so shunshined toward him and engaged him in taijutsu.

The Uchiha managed to catch the Namikaze off guard, which worked well to his advantage. Itachi feinted right and hopped left, leaving the right-handed Naruto's blade hand out in the open. He grabbed the blonde's wrist and twisted it in such a way that he was forced to drop the Tenmon no Tsurug, then promptly kicked it away. This left him open for a kick to the stomach, but it was worth it.

Kakashi raced to the point in the stands nearest to Itachi, who had sped over as quickly as possible to Naruto's sword. The Uchiha mentally thanked his teacher for his awareness of the situation as he threw it to him.

"I hate you so fucking much. Is it even legal to throw someone else's shit into the stands?" Genma nodded, which elicited a sigh from Naruto. "Thanks for at least throwing it to someone we know." The blonde briefly looked into the crowd and saw someone who caught his eye.

"Itachi, look," he said as he pointed to a spot in the stands.

Naruto was never one for such underhanded tricks, especially on such a big stage, so the other Black Rain member trusted him. Leaning over the railing right by the center of the field was Shisui.

"Hey, Itachi, kick his ass for the Uchiha!" the oldest Black Rain member yelled. Itachi grinned.

"Great to know there's so much love for me out there," Naruto observed sheepishly.

"Well now I _really _have to kick your ass, ani. No more talking! **Raiton: Electrocution Touch!**" Lightning danced around Itachi's palms as he quickly approached his target. The Uzumaki reached for something in his pouch, but nobody could see what it was; however, they found out when he threw it on the ground and a large smoke cloud formed.

_Ok, Naruto definitely never uses smoke bombs. This is just weird. _The smoke was laced with disrupting chakra, leaving even his sharingan eyes completely in the dark.

When it cleared, Itachi found himself in the middle of three seal tags forming a circle around him. Naruto was looking at him with a confident grin.

_Got you, Itachi! _"**Fuin: Paralysis Orb!**" Naruto was about to celebrate when reality hit him like a freight train and he saw that the orb was empty.

"Maybe my non-sharingan genjutsu isn't so bad after all," the would-be target said with yet another confident grin.

"Damn it, Itachi! **Suiton: Water Dragon!**"

"**Raiton: Lightning Dragon! Katon: Winding Vortex!**" The spinning fire surrounded the dragon and lent it a sort of armor as it struck the water dragon. Itachi's dragon won out, causing Naruto to suffer complete numbness in his left arm before he could shunshin backward.

_Damn, I can only use one-handed signs until this gets better. Good thing Zabuza-sensei drilled me like hell on that. _The blonde made two shadow clones, while Itachi made one of his own.

"**Suiton: Raging Rapids!**" "**Futon: Striking Gale!**"

"**Katon: Comet Strike!**" "**Raiton: Splicing Current!**"

The various jutsu met in a grand display of power, neither side giving an inch, but giving generously an incredible show for the audience.

_I can't do much on this arm…_

_I'm almost out of chakra…_

"Time to end this!"

Naruto gathered a **Rasengan**, while Itachi formed a **Chidori**, but one so dense the lightning was black**. **The two warriors locked eyes in a show of respect as they approached one another. The most epic chunin exam history would ever see would end with this one move, forming repercussions that even kage could not ascertain. The entirety of Hi no Kuni had never been so on edge, not through two great shinobi wars. Names would be made, heroes would rise, villains would fall, cities would crumble and dynasties would be formed as a direct result of these few seconds. How would the cards fall?

The Black Rain members met in midair, A-rank jutsu at the ready. Their palms met and created an explosion the sound and look of which would never be forgotten by any spectator in attendance. A large, black swirl surrounded the two and expanded outward quickly enough that the shallow water underneath them was pushed outward and the ground underneath _that _was devastated, forming a crater several inches deep.

After the explosion, there was a very thick, very large smoke cloud which hovered over the area for what was in reality only a few seconds, but felt like years to everyone watching. Everyone, even those watching on television, was dead silent.

The smoke cleared to reveal Itachi Uchiha standing over a prostrate Naruto Namikaze.

Genma rushed over to claim the victor's hand and raise it high. "Itachi Uchiha wins the chunin exams!"

The crowd roared its approval. What a fittingly epic match that had been. Disappointment was totally absent from the spectators' opinions of the bout. Jiraiya was somewhat upset, but knew that Itachi was a worthy opponent. Tsunade cried at the loss of all those ryo and blamed herself for cursing her Naruto-kun. Kakashi smiled under his mask. Hiruzen laughed in enjoyment at how incredible that match had been and how good his village looked right then.

Itachi quickly slipped his hand from Genma's, picked up Naruto, who was fully conscious, although extremely sore and in no small amount of pain, and supported him with his shoulder so that the crowd could acknowledge him as well. Sure enough, they roared even more loudly. Then the victor signaled to a certain fellow genin in the crowd to come join them. At first Shisui was hesitant, but soon couldn't resist.

All three Black Rain members bowed humbly before the crowd, their grey cloaks grimy with sweat, blood and dirt. At the sight of their three most incredible genin perhaps in history, the crowd was louder still. They showered their young ones with praise. Small children were already idolizing them. The elderly were already positively comparing them to the great ninja of days past.

Everyone would know the name Black Rain. Now all those three had to do was make sure it was never forgotten.

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**Tell me what you thought of the fights and this chunin exam arc as a whole.**

**Rate and Review. **


	18. Chapter 17

**For better or worse, this chapter represents the turning point of this story…**

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**Chapter 17**

**How Things Changed**

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_3 Months Later_

He couldn't help but let a smile creep across his face.

Naruto had entered the apartment he now shared with Shisui and Itachi expecting a couple half-hearted mutters of "happy birthday"- especially considering the emotional state he knew his friends were in- but instead, he found something very different: streamers and balloons set up in the kitchen, a cake complete with fourteen lit candles, and the most important people in his life. Jiraiya, Tsunade, Hiruzen, Kakashi, Iruka, Teuchi, Shizune, Kurenai and several others had come together to surprise him, along with his brothers.

At first, nervousness and despair struck the Namikaze- he had never experienced a real birthday party. Every October 10, the entire village was in despair, so nobody was in the mood and it would have been improper to pry. Before Jiraiya adopted him, Hiruzen would take him to Ichiraku, where Teuchi would serve him as many bowls as he could eat, all on the house. To Naruto, this qualified as the best celebration ever. That tradition continued even when Jiraiya adopted him, since even the Toad Sage found it difficult to overcome the still-fresh wounds left on that day, despite his best efforts.

Yet here he was now, with all these people who legitimately cared about him. A more overtly sensitive young man might have cried on the spot- fortunately for all present, Naruto was not that young man.

"Hey, ani," Shisui said as he gestured to the few acres outside which usually served as a private area for training, "the real party's outside."

The blonde wasn't sure that "the real party" was a good thing, but he went outside nonetheless, followed by his loved ones.

What he saw both took his breath away and infuriated him.

"You two brought the whole fucking village!" he seethed to his brothers, who could barely hear him over the thunderous applause of the over one thousand people congregated in the fields. Many clothed tables were set up out there, some with drinks, some with small appetizers, but all manned by men wearing tuxedos and slicked-back hair.

"It's the least we could do for the most beloved man in the village!"

"I hate you guys so much."

"Nah, you love us. Have fun!"

While they walked away, Shisui already mingling with every attractive girl that caught his eye, and Itachi with Kurenai, who was clinging to him tightly and hissing at any potential threat to hit on her man, Shizune tiptoed forward and gave her boyfriend a soft peck on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Naruto-kun," she purred as she wrapped her arms around his waist. By then, all the other guests were engaging in small talk and pouring themselves drinks.

"Thanks, baby," he answered while he tucked the hair on her cheek behind her ear. The masses were slowly, but not slowly enough, gravitating toward him. "Guess we're going to have to socialize with a _lot _of people," he said with a sigh.

"Price of fame, I get it. No problem," she purred back.

Naruto had been lucky to have several people who he was actually comfortable with, since hanging out with them could protect him from the thronging mass of utter strangers; however, they could only do so much to shield him. After what Naruto thought was far too long spent talking to people who he didn't know and who pretended to know him, Shisui climbed onto a table and made an announcement to gather for the presentation of presents.

The several long, rectangular tables which had been meant to house his presents had quickly been found wildly insufficient for all those gifts. The boxes were splayed out on the ground about the designated area. It would take ages to open them all. Naruto just sighed and got to work.

He aimed for presents from people he didn't know first, hopefully saving the best for last. The strangers' presents ranged from expensive wines to gift cards for popular dango spots to floridly decorated throw pillows. Some of the gifts he legitimately liked, mostly the ones from ninja, but most he knew he would very likely never find a use for.

After upwards of two hours of gift-opening, he had narrowed it down to ones from those close to him.

Iruka gifted him chakra wire, a very useful tool should one have the chakra control to wield it; Tsunade gave him the necklace that had belonged to her grandfather, with the warning that he had better become Hokage or he'd die (only not worded quite so bluntly), as well as a smooch on the forehead. Hiruzen gave him a set of golden kunai which were drawn on with a special seal that enhanced the cutting and speed capabilities of wind chakra hundredfold. And Shizune had said he would get his present later that night.

Now there was only Jiraiya and a combination gift from Shisui and Itachi. The boy decided his surrogate father's would go first, since he knew that the other gift would probably be incredibly grandiose.

He carefully unraveled the solid royal blue wrapping paper to reveal a very familiar scroll- at least, familiar to him.

"It's time you truly follow in your father's footsteps, gaki," the Toad Sennin boomed. "This is the scroll to his legendary technique, the Hiraishin."

The entire audience gasped. Could Naruto truly learn the sacred jutsu?

"I've been trying to crack it for years with no luck- maybe you can. I doubt it though," he finished with a mumble.

"Tou-san, I've been working on this for, like, a year and a half already. Do you think I spend all that time in the library everyday looking at C-rank Suiton jutsu? I'm not even that far from figuring it out. The only reason you never did is because you were too busy drinking and peeping on women to spend any real time on it," Naruto answered, the harsh sound of truth resonating with his words.

Instead of being embarrassed as the vast majority of people would have been, Jiraiya just laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right. Anyway, you're not getting anything else, so enjoy."

"Cheap-ass old man," the blonde grumbled under his breath.

Naruto could see the excitement positively oozing from Itachi's and Shisui's facial expressions as he reached for the final gift. The box itself was quite large, probably three feet by three by three, and was hastily wrapped in Christmas-themed snowman paper.

He unraveled the paper to find a box chock-full of thousands of condoms, all with either Shisui's or Itachi's face imprinted on the end.

"It's for all the times you and Shizune-chan get it on! Hopefully, anyway! This way you can always know- when you hit it, we hit it too. Squad!"

Shizune's face was a million shades of red. Naruto wore a simply emotionless expression on his face.

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU BOTH!"

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After a good round of alternately embarrassing, alternately romantic, and alternately downright strange dancing for all, the place had emptied out of all the strangers. Naruto had arrived at noon; it was now 10:30. Only the three young men, their girlfriends (Shisui had found a _well-endowed _young kunoichi earlier) and Hiruzen, who had something to discuss with the boys. Jiraiya and Tsunade had grabbed a few bottles of sake- each- and stumbled off for a night on the town. The fact that they had gone out for a night on the town together meant they were so drunk that they most likely would not be returning to their homes that night.

The Hokage politely asked the girls to give him and his newest chunin some alone time in the kitchen.

"What's up, Jiji-san? I have some, uh, important business to attend to."

"Yes, I'm sure you all do," the old man answered with a sigh. He could clearly see how impatient these three were to return to their girlfriends. Hopefully, this wouldn't kill their mood.

"Unfortunately, I have something very important to tell you all. Let me start at the beginning…"

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_1 week after chunin exam final_

_Hiruzen and his council of elders were gathered in the main office of the Hokage tower. It was a bleak night; the moon could not quite pierce through the thick cloud cover that had formed above the village. _

"_Hiruzen, it's time we face the music," a creaky old voice began. "Konoha, in its present state, even with the assistance of Kiri, is not nearly powerful enough to win this war, especially now that Jiraiya has uncovered this Suna treachery. Nonetheless, I agree with your decision not to yield in this matter; we cannot possibly bow down to Iwa, especially in the matter of our only jinchurikii."_

"_I understand, Danzo, that we are in a very difficult situation," answered the kage, "but what are we to do?"_

"_The jinchurikii and the last two Uchiha are the future of this village. All three hold a great power within them which, if harnessed, will effectively save the village," Koharu stated. _(Hiruzen had deemed it necessary to inform the elders of the EMS; they had always known about Naruto.) _"However, they are not yet strong enough to fully harness these powers."_

"_And whence, exactly, would you propose they gain this strength?" Sarutobi's tone was stained with unease. _

"_Danzo has made great progress-" _

"_I will __**not **__allow anyone to make those three into emotionless machines! Those boys did nothing to deserve being turned into nothing but weapons! All they have done is spend their entire lives suffering for their village, and they never complain because they love it and would die for it. Will this village truly repay them with military training that borders on torturous?" Even as the words left his mouth, Hiruzen knew that no matter how rhetorically excellent the moral treatise he devised might be, this had to be done. There was no way around it. Konoha would be destroyed if those three did not learn to use their powers to the fullest. _

"_I'm afraid the decision isn't yours to make, Hiruzen," Danzo said in the same cool voice he perpetually held. "Matters of this realm are equally in the hands of the council as they are in yours. Let us cast a vote- who would see the boys trained under my hand?"_

_Danzo himself and Koharu raised their hands. Before long, Homura, who had been silent up to that point, raised his as well. _

_All hope was shattered now. "Homura…" the Hokage began. _

"_I am sorry, Sarutobi. I know I normally stand on your side in such matters, but this is for the sake of the village."_

_Hiruzen grabbed his head in despair, wondering what to do. "Give them three months. When Naruto's birthday comes, I will break the news. I have to salvage whatever humanity I can…"_

"_Very well," Danzo answered, "but not a day longer. This war is just on the horizon." _

Black Rain sat with their heads hanging. They didn't- couldn't- speak for a while. The news hit them all like a freight train.

"What does this mean, exactly?" Itachi asked hesitantly.

"You'll spend all day, every day at the ROOT facility, which is somewhere in Konoha underground- I've always known it secretly existed, but have never had the heart to investigate or eliminate it- after all, it has always done good for this village, despite its countless ethical shortcomings.

"Anyway, Danzo will train you with extreme rigor. I can promise you it will be on an entirely different level than anything you've experienced previously. You'll be completely cut off from the outside world, except I've managed to get you two visits a month from loved ones, but you'll always have each other. There, the primary purpose of your training will be, for you two, to learn to use the Mangekyo fully, especially now that it is eternal, and for you, Naruto, to harness the Kyuubi's power to a greater extent."

"I'm guessing this is because of the war coming up?" Naruto observed.

"How do you know-"

"I have my ways. I have my ways."

Hiruzen sighed. "Yes, it's because of the war. At this point, things are very much in the enemy's favor. We have few allies, and they are weak, and they have many, who are strong. To put it simply, if Konoha is to make it out of this war in one piece, we will need all three of your powers."

"Well, it seems to me there's not much of a choice," Shisui pronounced.

"What do you mean?" the old man asked.

"When the choice emerges between our personal happiness and the village's safety, we'll always choose our home. It's what made us who we are; how can we betray it?" Itachi explained.

"And it's like you said, who can possibly save this place except the most badass shinobi in the history of the ninja world?" Naruto finished with half-hearted, but certainly still present, enthusiasm.

Hiruzen was unbelievably moved. _The will of fire…Senju and Uchiha coming together in bonds of brotherhood…Hashirama, this is precisely what you envisioned. Your dream has been realized. _

The old man had to get out of there before he shed a tear in front of his young charges. "Very well," he managed, "be at my office at 12 tomorrow. Have fun tonight. I'll let myself out."

Before anyone else could say anything, Naruto cut them short- "Listen, guys, let's just have a shit ton of fun tonight, not think about this at all, and worry about it tomorrow. No matter what, we'll always have each other, anyway."

"You right, ani," Shisui agreed. "Come on, let's see what the girls are up to."

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Two shadows stood in a dark recess of a secret facility.

"I'm glad we could reach a deal, Danzo-dono."

"I would have been a fool not to accept your terms. I must say, I was not aware of how invested you are in their training."

"Oh, but I am. Shisui-kun and Itachi-kun are very, very valuable."

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The apartment that Black Rain had purchased for themselves was a sprawling, luxurious one. It was four stories tall, the bottom floor for common use, and the other three for one member each, up to the roof, which had a wet bar. The place had floor-to-ceiling windows, king-size beds, and every other luxury of contemporary-style architecture.

Any normal chunin would not have dreamed of purchasing such a place, but when the entirety of the Namikaze and Uchiha riches combined are yours to command, an apartment like that was relatively modest. Now the three of them entered the elevator and hit the button for the roof.

They found Shizune, Kurenai and Shisui's girl each gripping a bottle of hard liquor, waving it around and occasionally stumbling to the ground as they yelled nonsensical gibberish that seemed only to accidentally form words every once in a while.

"Itachi-kun!" Kurenai muttered ferociously. It seemed that when she and Shizune actually tried, they could form words quite easily- they were only tipsy, not shit-faced drunk. "Grab a bottle!"

The three guys looked at each other. "Fuck yeah," they chorused.

Every girl there was a chunin- this meant that they lived alone and were basically grown women, so there was no danger of some responsible adult crashing the scene and busting them. They seemed to have grabbed every alcoholic beverage that Naruto had been awarded that day (which was _tons_) and grabbed the hardest stuff, so their boyfriends quickly followed suit, drinking straight out of the bottle.

With the first empty one, Shisui grabbed it and called everyone into a circle. "Spin the bottle, guys!"

They managed to stumble into something resembling an orb, a beautiful view of the village at night surrounding them in every direction. In Hi no Kuni, the nights were still quite warm in October, so the temperature was certainly manageable.

**OG Lemon: You have Been Warned but I Doubt You Will Be Ready… **

Naruto wasted no time in making the first spin. Luckily, the bottle found its way to Shizune, who was right next to him. "C'meer, Naruto-kun." They shared a passionate, if sloppy, make out session. Normally, this would have made everyone incredibly uncomfortable, but they were all drunk enough not to care.

Shisui was next. All eyes followed the bottle (as best they could) as it spun until it landed on... "Ugh, gross!"

Kurenai laughed. "Nobody wants to see you two kiss. On top of that, you're cousins, so it's incest. Super gross."

The two Uchiha heaved a sigh of relief.

Now Kurenai went. All the guys' faces lit up when the bottle pointed at Shizune.

"Oh, I don't know," the short-haired one said.

"I do. Rules of the game. There was one free pass for the game, and those two used it," Naruto said a little too excitedly.

"Hmm…he has a point," Kurenai allowed teasingly. "Shizune-chan?"

"Well, rules are rules. We don't wanna be bad girls and break them."

Just the thought of those two even touching lips accidentally had all three guys rock-hard in milliseconds. They could hardly breathe as they girls scooted closer to each other.

Shizune put her hand behind her friend's head as they leaned forward, drawing it out as long as possible. It seemed like years before they finally met.

All four of the others, including the other girl, had been expecting a quick peck. That changed when the kiss got deeper and deeper. Kurenai and Shizune had their eyes closed and were _going at it_- deep tongue action, groaning softly, feeling each other up. It was Naruto, Itachi and Shisui's dream.

Suddenly, Shisui couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed the girl next to him, who was no less attractive than the other two, with her long, dirty blonde, curly hair, her C cup tits and her older age, at least sixteen. The oldest Uchiha moved her so that she straddled him and started passionately making out with her- no lead up, straight to tongue- while he squeezed her ass. The kunoichi couldn't help but let out a moan of pleasure from Shisui coming onto her like that.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Itachi swore they were dreaming. While _still making out_, their girlfriends were running their hands down their chests, resulting in everything on their upper body coming off with stunning quickness. The drinks had never stopped flowing. Everyone was now drunk enough not to give a shit about anything at all- that in combination with the intense horniness meant reason had gone to the wind long ago. The two guys grabbed a couple more bottles to replace their empty ones and guzzled them greedily once they popped off the caps. They either didn't or couldn't give a passing care that they were walking around with their dicks poking very clearly out of their pants.

They stumbled back over to their girlfriends, who had by then had stopped making out, but had stripped down to their lingerie. The intoxication of the alcohol and the sex drive was palpable, almost tangible in the night air. No one on that roof even approached what anyone else would call common sense or awareness of their surroundings. Right now, they were slaves to their passions and were loving every second of it.

The two girls immediately set to kissing their men's bulges and running their hands up their chests. Before long, neither could handle the teasing anymore and dropped their pants without a care.

Kurenai set to slowly licking her man's rod on the bottom from the base to the tip. When Itachi let out an audible groan she could tell she was doing something right. She did it for a while, then started stoking his cock while playing with the tip with her tongue. The Uchiha could hardly take it anymore and forced her mouth to take in several inches. She set a comfortable pace and hit a steady rhythm, her mouth following close behind her hand with every stroke.

Shizune had started by playing with Naruto's balls. Somewhere in one of Tsunade's drunken monologues, she had touched on the subject of blowjobs. She struggled to remember that speech from when she was eight, but managed to recall a long-winded explanation of why men loved that in particular, so she acted on it. The blonde was groaning in pleasure, clearly enjoying it, but soon he made a request: "Please suck my cock, Shizune-chan," he moaned. She happily obliged after glancing over to Kurenai, making sure she was doing it right and being very, very careful to keep her teeth well out of range of his dick.

Meanwhile, Shisui was behind them enjoying a tit job from a girl whose name he didn't even know.

It took seconds for all three guys to cum. Itachi came first, since he and Kurenai had been having sex for a bit longer and she knew exactly what buttons to push, but he wasn't quite used to this kind of thing like Shisui was. The second he finished and she swallowed, he pushed her on her back. She took off her bra, revealing her breasts, which her almost a C cup, while he slid off her panties. As he'd expected, she was extremely wet, and he was hard again in seconds.

"You want me to fuck you baby?"

"Oh, I want your big, hard cock so bad, Itachi-kun. You have me so wet, I'll do anything, just please fuck me."

_Anything? _"Naruto!" he yelled. The blonde had yet to finish. "Get Shizune naked and come over here."

The two of them rushed over once she had stripped down. "Shizune, sit on Kurenai's face while you suck off Naruto." No complaints arose- in fact, Kurenai was more than happy to do whatever made Itachi happy, as long as she got fucked, Shizune desperately wanted someone to get her off too, and figured another girl would probably be good at eating her out, and Naruto thought it was the hottest idea ever.

So Shizune straddled her friend's face and continued to bob her head on her boyfriend's cock, while Itachi pounded Kurenai, which made her cry out. Soon Shisui and her girl came over. Naruto just wore a look of immense of excitement when Shisui got on his back even with Kurenai, his cock next to Shizune, so that his girl began to ride reverse cowgirl on Shisui while she sucked him off as well as Shizune.

That two girls were now playing with his cock had Naruto going insane. He came ridiculously quickly after that. Just before he blew his load, he got a random feeling that he desperately wanted to cum on both of their faces, so he pulled out of Shizune's mouth and the girl stopped playing with his balls. They both immediately knew what he was doing, so they obediently put their heads back, closed their eyes and opened their mouths. The Namikaze had the presence of mind not to cum in their hair, but he came in such volume that it easily covered both of their faces.

His girlfriend didn't even like the taste of cum, but she was so close to cumming, and therefore so incredibly horny, that she set to licking it off the other girl's face like a wild animal. That girl tried her best to do the same, but the way Shisui was thrusting from underneath her made it incredibly hard.

Now Shizune was dangerously close to cumming on her friend's face. She considered getting off, but found it so hot that she decided not to. Kurenai, meanwhile, had already cum twice from Itachi's constant pile-driving, and was herself ridiculously turned on. When the short-haired girl told her that she was about to cum on her face, Kurenai found herself smacking her friend's ass and eating her out still more ferociously. In seconds, Kurenai had licked up every drop of her friend's cum.

Shizune and Kurenai were both learning something they had never known about themselves- normally, they knew that they found the taste of cum bearable- much, much closer to gross than enjoyable. But when they were _really, really _turned on, it turned out they couldn't get enough.

Shisui and Itachi were clearly both very close. The older one pulled out of his girl and Shizune crawled over to get as much as possible. He seemed as though he was going to cum on their faces, but she greedily pulled his cock as deep into her mouth as possible right when he was about to finish. His cock was drenched in that girl's cum already, so that combined with his own, fresh load busting into her mouth made her groan in pleasure while she deep throated his dick as far as possible.

"Damn, Shizune-chan, you're a freak," the oldest Uchiha said once he finished. Kurenai had just swallowed his cousin's load.

The air quickly became awkward and tense. What do you do after a drunken orgy? Naruto grabbed a half-full bottle of something brown off the ground, guzzled it, and immediately threw up. This succeeded in resulting in everyone grabbing their clothes and heading to the elevator, leaving Shizune and Naruto there alone with the breeze and the beautiful night sky.

How quickly things could fall apart.

_How quickly things could fall apart. _

**Lemon End**

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Obito had successfully made his way without incident to the northern forest of Konoha to make a very important appointment, one he wouldn't be able to make again for several years.

He finally reached the correct spot, where, as he'd expected, a figure was waiting for him. He immediately got on his knee in front of the figure, who was completely shrouded in a black cloak.

"Bring me up to speed. I have been gone for far too long."

"The mission in Wave proceeded flawlessly. Your brilliance was on full display, killing their sensei to awaken their Mangekyo."

"Do not flatter me, Obito. I do not need your ornate words. Continue."

"Of course. Shisui-kun and Itachi-kun are still within our reach, especially the former. He is unstable and emotionally volatile. I believe we can use his love for his comrades to bring him to our side. However, the kyuubi is wasted effort."

"As I thought. Anymore?"

"I can easily persuade sharingan Kakashi with only the proper rhetoric. He is incredibly broken and wants nothing more than to have me as a friend. While he does not have nearly the potential of the other two, his Mangekyo is bound to be useful."

"Hm. Fine, we will take him. Another Mangekyo cannot be a negative thing. Is that all?"

"Yes, that is all."

"I expect you to have at least two of those people with you next time we meet. Do not fail me, Obito."

"I never have, nor will I ever. I am the servant of your will, Madara-sama."

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**Everyone is nearly 16 except Naruto, who entered the academy a year early because of Jiraiya's and his own excitement- so he is a year younger, but that doesn't matter as much for guys; all that to say, don't worry too much about the lemon. They were all drunk, horny, and close-knit, so it's not too farfetched. **

**Rate and Review. **


	19. Chapter 18

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**Chapter 18**

**Continuation**

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Everyone had retreated from the rooftop back to their rooms. Shisui had won the top floor, Naruto the third floor and Itachi the second. Each floor was heavy with sound seals, preventing any "disturbances" on one floor from reaching another. In addition, the floor plan was such that the bedroom on one floor was on the opposite side from the floor adjacent to it. In other words, Itachi's bedroom was on the left, Naruto's on the right, and Shisui's on the left again, which made it virtually impossible for anything occurring in any of those bedrooms to disturb others who might be sleeping or conducting their own…activities.

Naruto and Shizune had thrown on their clothes shortly after everyone else had gone, then taken the elevator to the young man's floor. After copious use of toothbrushes and mouthwash, their breath didn't smell repulsive and they crawled into bed together. They both faced toward the floor-to-ceiling window and balcony on the left side of his room, gazing out on the sleeping city. He laid his right arm over her waist and pulled her close so that he could kiss her cheek from behind. The effects of the alcohol were already beginning to wear off. Something nagged at Naruto.

"So…that was interesting," he whispered.

"Yeah, that's one word. Let's probably never do that again."

"Really? You don't want to?"

She turned slightly so that she could send him a surprised look. "Do _you _want to do that again?"

"That's not it at all. I'm just surprised that you would be the one to say that, considering how happy you seemed to be sucking off Shisui."

Shizune sat up and pushed him away slightly. "You know what, fuck you. Everybody was totally drunk and super fucking horny. Besides, you're one to talk, the way you busted all over that girl's face instead of _mine._"

"I busted on both your faces!" He mentally considered how useless a correction that was. "Either way, that's not the point. It was totally different. First of all, _she_ came to _me_, while _you _went to _him_. Second, you were there when I was busting on _both_ of your faces, while you left me alone so you could go to him. You didn't see Kurenai leaving Itachi."

"None of that is the point! And Itachi hadn't finished yet, so Kurenai could have his cum! Look, you don't understand, ok? Even I don't really get it, but I was really horny, and I wasn't thinking straight. This isn't my fault!"

"But it is. I don't care how horny or drunk you are, you don't leave me so my best friend can blow his load in your mouth! In fact, remind me not to kiss you for at least a week. That's totally gross."

She stood up and threw a pillow at him. By now they were yelling at each other. "Fuck you, Naruto! I don't need you to judge me like this! Why can't you just forgive me and move on!?"

"It's hard to forgive someone who won't fucking apologize!"

"Why should I have to apologize for something that isn't my fault!? Do you think I liked having to share my man's cock with some random bitch?!"

"Oh, so my cock can't be shared but your pussy can be? Oh, great, you get a double standard! I get a double standard! EVERYBODY GETS A FUCKING DOUBLE STANDARD!"

"I _know _you're not talking about Kurenai eating me out. You and Itachi both thought that was the hottest shit in the world! You _loved _that, and don't even try to act like you didn't!"

"Well how do I know you're not lying about sharing my dick with that girl?!"

"UGH! I fucking hate you, Naruto! Go find some other girl to treat like trash!" She approached the door to storm out when her boyfriend's voice lowered in volume and harshness considerably.

"Wait, Shizune, wait." She paused slightly and he took a deep breath. "Try not to suck too many dicks, or you might hurt your knees and ruin your shot at making jonin."

Instead of the even larger burst of anger he had been expecting, she turned around with hot tears in her eyes.

"You've broken my heart, Naruto Namikaze." The young man felt an immediate pang of regret but couldn't act on it. "I'll show myself out." She closed the bedroom door behind her and Naruto felt her chakra signature disappear.

_What have I done?_

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Itachi and Kurenai continued to cuddle, blissfully unaware of the awful fight happening just a floor above them. They had put on their pants in the elevator, only to get naked again and get into bed once they had completed the same dentally hygienic necessities that their friends had. He pulled the blankets over them while she wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled deep into his chest. He did the same around her back, leaving one hand stroking her head. He kissed her head then squeezed her tighter, making her let out a cute, soft moan of pleasure.

"You feel so good, Itachi-kun," she whispered.

"You feel way better," he answered sweetly. "So soft and warm. I could cuddle with you forever, baby girl."

"Mmm, please do. Everything you do feels so good, I just want you touching me all the time," she said with a soft laugh, but clearly wasn't joking at all.

He responded by sliding his hand down her back to her ass, which he swore was the softest thing he had or would ever feel, and massaged it lightly, eliciting yet another groan from her. "It only feels good because _you _feel so good."

"Mmm, that makes no sense."

"Mmm, yes it does."

"Actu-"

"Shhhhhh. Just let it be."

The ruby-eyed girl decided to yield that round and smiled. "I'm so lucky to have you. You're perfect."

"I'm perfect? No, no, I'm far from it. You're the one who's perfect. I would be in such a dark place if I didn't have you…"

Worry struck Kurenai's countenance. She pulled back a bit so she could stroke his face and give him a loving kiss. "Don't think about that, baby. You'll always have me."

"You swear? You won't leave me for a guy who's better-looking, or nicer, or-"

She interrupted him with a bout of laughter.

"What's so funny," he said, unable to resist laughing himself.

"You're so much more attractive and so much nicer than any guy I'll ever meet. There's absolutely no way I'll ever leave you, trust me."

Itachi smiled now. "If you say so. Just for the record, I'm all yours too."

"I love you, Itachi-kun."

"I love you too, Kurenai-chan."

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Shisui had kicked out his girl immediately upon arriving on his floor. It was obvious she was expecting to sleep with him and was less than happy when he demanded she leave. The Uchiha waited for a few minutes after she left. He then hitched a ride on the elevator back up to the roof and collected every bottle scattered about, empty or full. The empty ones he took to a dumpster near the building- the rest he sealed in a scroll he had brought from his room. When he returned to his bedroom, he entered the walk-in closet and pushed aside a rack of dress clothes, revealing the contours of a hidden compartment in the wall, about four feet tall and three feet wide. He placed the contents of the scroll into the container, which already had a number of bottles inside, except for a forty-ounce of hard liquor, which he kept for himself.

_Terrible screams ring out. The awful scent of burning flesh permeates the air. _

Shisui stumbled to the balcony just outside his bedroom, nursing his new drink in small sips.

"I…I could've stopped it…"

_Blood paves the walkways. Limbless bodies crawl pitifully about, mute with terror. _

He climbed onto the railing. Cool wind whipped through his ebony hair as he struggled to maintain his balance through drunkenness and tears.

"_Shisui, save the children, please! PLEASE!" _

He gazed down at the hard ground beneath him, over forty perilous feet away. An unimpeded fall from this height, at the right angle, would surely kill him. It would be over so quickly.

He took the plunge.

His grief was too great. He had nothing left to give. Surely death would bring relief. Shisui had never been religious, but he hoped for nothing but absentness in the afterlife, a black emptiness much safer than the reality around him.

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Itachi and Kurenai were the first to rise. They showered together and got dressed, unaffected by a hangover, as they had drunk the least, and set off to wake up the others.

Naruto, being one floor up, was first. The Uchiha went in first to make sure nothing too terribly embarrassing was present (the door was unlocked), then roused him.

"Where's Shizune?" Kurenai asked as she walked in. Realization visibly struck Naruto, his eyes widening in remembrance (and perhaps a tinge of worry?), followed by him rambling off something about her needing to leave early to meet up with Tsunade.

The girl found it believable enough and thought nothing of it; but the sharingan wielder, even without activating his kekkei genkai, could easily tell that his friend was lying. However, he sagely decided not to pursue the truth until later.

Naruto didn't have a terrible hangover, but did have a lingering headache, which the Yuhi quickly healed as she explained that she had picked up a lot from Shizune. After the blonde grabbed a quick shower (the other two may or may not have made out on his bed while he was gone), they took the elevator to Shisui's floor, whose door was ajar.

"Knowing Shisui, he's gonna be so- hey, he's not in bed," Naruto said, slightly surprised. "I _know _he didn't get up early."

While the two men searched the rest of the place, Kurenai strolled out to the balcony, finding it strange that the sliding glass door was open. What she saw when she looked down horrified her.

"Guys, come here, hurry!" she hastily called. The two rushed over to see their naked brother lying face-down in a circular depression which had been opened in the ground.

"Shit, come on!" They jumped down and sped over to him, where Itachi immediately felt his pulse. His sigh of relief calmed the others down as well. "He's just asleep. Will you grab a blanket from his room, baby? This is fucking embarrassing." As Kurenai left, they both noticed the bottle of liquor still tucked underneath his cousin's arm.

"We're gonna have to have a very long talk with him about this," Naruto decided, eliciting a nod from his comrade, who picked up the bottle and threw it as far as he could into a thicket of bushes.

"Would you like to do the honors?"

The Uzumaki nodded. Without making any sort of hand signs at all, he caused an ever-larger mass of water to form above Shisui, until it was twice the size of the young man's body, then dumped the entire thing on the poor victim's face.

Shisui scrambled to his feet and activated his Mangekyo as though Konoha was being invaded that very second. "Oh, Kami, what the fuck, where are they? I'll kill them! Ow, ow, ow, oh, Kami, ow," he said as he cradled his head from experiencing the most debilitating headache of all time. Presently Kurenai returned with the blanket. Shisui self-consciously recognized his nudity and hurriedly covered himself. The young lady noticed his pain and volunteered a solution.

"Shizune-chan showed me this great medical ninjutsu that Tsunade-sama developed which effectively cures the effects of a hangover in a matter of minutes. Never thought I would have to use it, but here we are, so, yeah."

After just a minute of her hands glowing green on his head, the pain subsided considerably. "You'll be pretty nauseous and dizzy for about fifteen minutes, and there will be some lingering pain for about an hour, but once that's over, you're good to go. It's a surprisingly simple jutsu."

"Thanks, Kurenai-chan," he muttered.

"Care to explain yourself now?" Itachi demanded.

He pondered the occurrences that had led to his current state and chose his words carefully.

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_Shisui hit the ground and a dust cloud rose up, obscuring his fate. A witness would not have been able, initially, to see Shisui's fate- namely, the ethereal, green hand which broke his fall. _

_The tears fell with greater ferocity now as the Susano'o disappeared and he harmlessly hit the ground. _

"_Damn it, damn it, damn it!" he choked out as he struck the ground in time with each exclamation. The young man wept for several minutes. Eventually fatigue overcame him and sleep blanketed his consciousness, taking it to a place which a good dream had not visited in months. _

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"I don't remember exactly. I think I was being an idiot and fucking around with my Susano'o."

"Typical," sneered Naruto. Shisui was a hell of a liar, the only person Itachi had ever known on whom his lie detection was useless, being that he knew exactly how the sharingan worked. He couldn't fathom a reasonable alternative to that story, so he chose the side of tentative belief.

"Fine. We have two hours before we have to be at Hokage-sama's office. I suggest you two say your goodbyes."

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_One year later_

The sheer amount of power in the stiff room just seconds earlier evaporated into thin air, but the fear and awe present in the faces of the witnesses to that scene did not. Even after the many times they had seen and felt it, the sheer weight of all that chakra, especially in such a confined space, was simply too much to ignore. Black Rain picked through the bloodied remains of the ROOT ANBU who had had the awful misfortune of being chosen to face them. The room stunk of burnt and wet flesh, but the wholly black cloaks of those three remained pristine.

A bandaged man in the corner of the room, cowering subordinates all around him, clapped slowly. "The best performance yet," Danzo complimented. "You are ready. Come with me."

They expressionlessly obeyed, as though unaffected by the fact that their year-long imprisonment would end at long last. The shinobi of darkness led them into what seemed to try to be a makeshift war room, but was really just a poorly kept office with a map of the shinobi nations hanging on a wall.

"It took six months for both sides in this war to gather supplies, strengthen alliances and mobilize troops. Up to this point no major battles have been fought, only minor skirmishes on each side of our borders, which have been heavily policed. However, Hiruzen and I agree that this will most likely not last long, and it would be preferable if Konoha was the one to launch the first major military operation. As such, you three will be taking a mission in Kusagakure. They have broken their long-standing alliance with us and have joined the Heavenly Alliance, and are reportedly planning to move hundreds of tons of Iwa supplies through their territory very soon- however, guards will be light, since most of the troops are moving north to meet with their Kumo counterparts. You are to intercept these supplies and destroy them, leaving no witnesses. Understood?"

Three solemn nods were his answer.

"Excellent. Here are scrolls with all the supplies you'll need. You will meet your captain at the gates. Dismissed."

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Black Rain now wore cloaks of the same shape, but the color was all black instead of gray, except for the same drizzling rain motives, which were now white. Other than that, the cloaks were plain. They had been formally enrolled into ANBU the day their time with Danzo began. However, they were outside the normal parameters of ANBU agents, which explained why they were allowed to keep their own garb and not wear masks. Danzo wanted to separate their appearance from that of normal Konoha ANBU so that, once their names were known throughout the world, enemies would recognize them on the battlefield and become overridden with fear in the middle of fighting.

Currently, they were roof-hopping toward the residential sector of the village.

"I want to see Shizune-chan," Naruto explained. "It's been two months since I've seen her."

"Yeah, I want to see Kurenai-chan. But please wait until we get back to fuck her- please. We don't have time for that," Itachi implored.

"I'll go meet with our taichou," Shisui volunteered as he veered off toward the north gate of the village.

The silence that accompanied the other two as they sped off to their lovers could not be described as awkward, friendly, or even comfortable. It was an empty silence, as though the two either struggled to grasp a single thought out of the countless that were floating through their minds, or they simply were not thinking anything at all. The changes that had occurred in their lives in the last couple of years had thrown their minds into turmoil, to say the very least.

The two arrived at their old apartment. Since they no longer had any use for it, as they were staying at ROOT headquarters, they had given their floors to their girlfriends to stay in. Neither argued, as the luxury of this place far surpassed that of their old homes. Both made their way to their respective floors to find, with great relief that both girls were back home from a mission.

Itachi rung the doorbell. Before he could say a word to Kurenai as she opened the door, she was smothering him in a hug.

"It's been so long," she said, almost reaching tears. "I was abusing Hokage-sama to let me see you but he wouldn't tell me anything. I almost started to assume the worst."

"Baby, you know I'm way too strong for anyone to get me, much less those ROOT kids. You have nothing to worry about."

He reached in for a long, deep kiss. She led him to the bedroom, where they sat on the edge of the bed. She started to undo his cloak. "Will you cuddle with me?"

"As much as I'd love-"

Kurenai shushed him with her finger to initiate her backup plan. She reached forward and softly kissed his neck while feeling his cock through the black pants he was wearing. "Please cuddle with me, Itachi-kun," she whispered breathily in the sexiest voice she could muster.

_Fuck that feels so good! She knows exactly how to get what she wants from me, damn it. I want to but…_ He gently pushed her away. "You know I want to so bad, baby girl, but I just can't. I have to leave for a mission right now, I just wanted to stop by and say hi."

"Oh." Kurenai was visibly downtrodden. "That's ok, I get it. But the second you get back-"

"This bed is the first place I'll come after I report in."

"Swear?"

"Swear."

She smiled in acceptance and they shared another kiss. "You should probably get going. I love you, Itachi-kun."

"I love you too, Kurenai-chan."

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Naruto rang the doorbell just like Itachi. Shizune, after cracking the door and peeking through, unlocked the door and swung it open. The blonde walked in and kissed her.

"Where have you been? What happened to seeing you twice a month?" she pouted.

"I don't know, I guess things got pretty crazy in the last couple of months. You weren't worried, were you?"

"Of course not," she said with a smile. "I know my big, strong, Naruto-kun can handle himself. I missed you, though."

He laughed. "Yeah, I can. I missed you too- a lot." Naruto kissed her again, this time for much longer, pushing her onto the couch from which she had been watching TV. He sat on it and picked her up, setting her so that she straddled him. They made out more passionately while he grabbed her ass- but only for a few minutes.

"Baby," the young man said while pushing her away, "I'm sorry but I really only had time to stop by for a few minutes. I have to leave for a mission like, right now."

Shizune sighed. "Fine. I get it." She got off of him and stood up. "Let me know when you're back."

"I totally will."

She followed him to the door and gave him a kiss on the cheek as he left. "Bye."

"Bye, Shizune-chan."

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The two of them met just outside the apartment at roughly the same time.

"How's Shizune-chan?" Itachi asked with a sad tone, clearly regretting not being able to stay with his girl.

The blonde sighed as they resumed their route to the northern gate. "Shit just isn't the same, ani. It's…just not the same."

"I think I know what you mean."

"Wait, are you having the same problem with Kurenai-chan?"

"No, not at all, but I can imagine."

The Namikaze shook his head and muttered something about sympathy. "Well, good for you, anyway."

"Thanks, ani."

They continued on in silence until they reached the northern gate, where they saw Shisui standing with two people- two people they knew very well.

"Obito-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, will you both be leading us?" Itachi inquired as they landed next to the three.

"Yes, at least for the present time, until you get your bearings as active ANBU," the silver-haired one explained. "In theory, it's inefficient for all five of us to go on the same mission, but Hokage-sama found it imperative that we be the ones to help you along for your first few times out, especially in the war scenario we're engaged in right now. We need you to be ready for when the real fights break out, which isn't too far away."

"As we're doing these first two or three missions, several companies of our troops, as well as Kiri's, will be mobilizing toward the border of Hi no Kuni. This is a defensive war- we must keep them away from the village. Whatever we five can do to aid in slowing the enemy will help the entire Southern Alliance immensely," Obito continued.

"That's right. Now, technically, I'm the taichou on this mission, but obviously, Obito has just as much authority as I do. We're dealing with a supply shipment to Kusa, just as a reminder. Understood? Good. Let's go."

As they left, Naruto felt his bijuu attempting to contact him. He suppressed the beast only for Kyuubi to keep attempting. Finally, after dozens of tries, the Namikaze gave in and entered his sewer-like mindscape. Time did not flow the same way in here, so outside he was really wasting no time at all. Kyuubi appeared at the gates in front of him.

"What the hell do you want, you piece of shit? I told you to leave me the fuck alone."

"**Just wait- there will come a time when those cursed Uchiha will betray you, and I will have my way with this pathetic human body and be released in perpetuity."**

"How many times have I told you that your stupid mind games won't work with me? I…I trusted you, you know. You might have been difficult to get along with, even a massive prick sometimes, but I saw us as having similar plights."

"**Similar plights!? YOU FOOL!" **The power of the roar forced Naruto to stagger backward. **"You have never known what it is like to be shunned and cursed and treated like a monster! You have had everything handed to you on a silver platter since the day I was sealed into your pathetic existence! Since my birth I have known only the hatred and fear of the human race- why would you be any exception? You are the most evil creatures I have ever encountered!"**

"Don't you take the fucking high road with me! You acted like you cared and wanted to look after me, even in your own perverse way, so I gave you some leeway and treated you like I would want to be treated if our roles were reversed. And how do you thank me? By betraying me at the first chance you had! If Itachi and Shisui hadn't been close by, the whole ROOT facility- hell, the whole fucking village would have been crushed to smithereens! You're no better than humans- hell, you're worse! I used to think people were wrong about you, that you were just a well-intentioned, although powerful, being, but now I realize that you fully earned the name of demon. Fuck you, Kyuubi. I'll keep my three tails. I don't need anymore of your power. In fact, I'm this close to taking the rest of it myself, without your permission."

"**Yes, brat, that's right, I am a demon. I don't want to help you, and I never will. I will escape from this prison and obliterate everything you hold dear, starting with those two friends of yours. And I wish you would try to take my power. I will relish destroying your puny form. I can never die; it will only take a few years for me to reform. But you? You humans are so very fragile. I could crush you right now!" **he cried as he battered the cage holding him back.

"Oh, but you can't," the young one taunted. "And you will never be able to. Good luck killing my friends; by my count, it's them, one, you, zero. You want to kill them because you know that they can control you whenever they wish. You _fear _them. Despite the fact that I could just have them come in here for two seconds and put you under their control indefinitely, so that I would always be able to use your power without a problem whenever I wanted, I still haven't done that. Do you know why? It's because I have faith in you, Kyuubi. One day, I'll win you over, and we'll make the best two-man team the world has ever seen."

The beast snorted. **"In your dreams, weakling."**

Naruto returned this with a smile. "Just wait, brother. You don't want to say anything you'll regret. Just think about it." He left a cross-armed Kyuubi to return to the physical world, where his team was still just setting off.

It quickly became apparent that conversation would be non-existent on this trip. The only one here who could be fairly counted as an extrovert was Naruto himself. For all he knew, the others' thoughts were going a million miles an hour, but they had no inclination to share it. He sighed and pressed on.

The pace the five of them kept would have been inconceivable even for most chunin. At a normal running pace, Kusa wasn't too far of a journey, but at this one, it would be just over a day's trip- ideal, since all the people here had been trained to go more than a week without good sleep. As they ran on, the forests of Konoha suddenly into vast plains, acres upon acres of staple crops such as wheat, beans and corn. The strangeness of a lack of any natural transition rectified itself when the blonde remembered that the space that was now Konoha and the surrounding forests was bare before the Shodai gave it life with his Mokuton.

The shinobi made no effort to stay on the roads, only to maintain the most efficient route possible, making exceptions only for precious crops. There were many farmers in the highlands surrounding the village, and most of those were subsistence farmers. It was well-known how harsh the cost of maintaining a large-scale hidden village was for the civilians surrounding it; the amount of food necessary for all those soldiers was mind-bending, so that everyone who was not a skilled laborer must be a farmer, and no matter how large or small your crop, a certain quota had to be met each harvest season to cover taxes. Whether or not they had enough left to survive the winter was not the problem of Konoha, but of Hi no Kuni, and the Fire Daimyo's government simply did not have the resources necessary to provide for every single citizen. Every time Naruto passed by an old farmer well past his prime but still having to break his back over that sickle every day to provide for his wife and children and possibly nephews and nieces and cousins and grandchildren, he swore that when he became Hokage, he would change everything drastically for the better, and not just in his country, but in the shinobi nations as a whole.

Luckily there were no large cities on their route. The map given them showed the route of the supply train and even suggested the optimal spot for an ambush, a defile among the dense forests sprawling throughout the country to which Kusa belonged. It was just south of the border between that country and Tsuchi no Kuni and quite far from Kusa, which meant reinforcements would not be forthcoming, a very good thing. Kakashi adjusted their course slightly to reflect this knowledge and led the five of them long into the night.

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The narrow pass was covered in thick prairie grass which reached to a man's knees, making it exceptionally difficult to walk through. The pass was wide enough that it would not be judged an obvious ambush spot and avoided altogether, since going around would cost the journeyers dozens of miles, but thin enough that trapping those who entered would be a relatively simple endeavor. It was flanked by jagged, pale rock faces hundreds of feet high. No trees populated the area whatsoever, a quite rare occurrence in that country.

Naruto set to laying an invisible trap while Kakashi summoned nine dogs, who all ran off with instructions to report back the second they smelled anything of interest. Now there was only one thing to do: wait. The other four took up a rough circle atop one of the cliffs and began unpacking snacks. Itachi and Shisui were soon enjoying instant ramen they had filled with water they'd found earlier and heated up with simple katon jutsu, while their elders munched on simple ration bars. Kakashi withheld the off-handed admonishment that too many carbs from fat just before a battle was a bad idea, instead turning away from the group to lower his mask and hastily inhale his food.

"So, Obito-sensei," Shisui began, attempting to break the awkward silence, "you've never talked about what it was like when Iwa took you prisoner."

"Why the hell would you ask that?" Itachi said harshly. "I'm sure there's a reason why he hasn't talked about it." Kakashi simply shook his head.

"I have no problem with you asking; however, it is something I prefer not to talk about. I'd appreciate it if you respect that."

"Yeah, yeah, of course. I understand. I bet it was a lot like what Danzo put us through," the older cousin muttered into his noodles.

Before the youngest one could voice his opinion that Shisui should talk less, Naruto and Pakkun, the leader of Kakashi's pack, returned simultaneously. The dog politely yielded first word to the human.

"Oh, I just wanted to say I'm done setting the trap. You go ahead." He took his place in the circle and pulled out some ramen of his own.

"The escort is coming in this direction, just like you said, but…the numbers are higher than the intel claimed."

"That's not totally unexpected. How much higher?"

"There's upwards of two thousand troops guarding that baggage train."

All five of them reeled at the number. The intel had stated no more than two hundred. Naruto slammed the rock beneath him with his fist. "This is _just _like Danzo, goddammit! He probably wanted to test us somehow!"

"Naruto's right," Itachi said seriously. "This is probably a setup. However, I would not fret."

"I never said we couldn't do it, I just meant it's annoying that he would set us up like that. I'll go make more space for the trap. A lot more," the blonde said and jumped down.

"How long do we have?" Kakashi asked his ninken.

"At least half an hour. I'd be wary of advance scouts, though. There were plenty of ANBU among them."

The Hatake sighed. "Thanks, Pakkun. You and the pack feel free to go."

"No problem, Kakashi. Good luck." He disappeared with a poof.

"To be perfectly honest, but not cocky at all, I'm not worried at all, even with two thousand of them. I'm not in charge, but just get the three of us in there while you two handle advance scouts and anyone else who tries to flank and everything will be perfectly fine," Shisui volunteered.

"I was thinking that, but are you sure?"

"Believe us, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Shisui and I have grown very, very much since a year ago. We can more than handle an unprepared Iwa regiment," ensured Itachi.

"I trust their judgment, Kakashi," Obito said.

"Ok, if you're all so adamant about it, I'll let you have it. But remember: _no survivors._"

"Yes, taichou." They dropped down to join their friend, leaving the other two alone.

"I wonder whether they're ready for the terrors of war," Obito said. "If only there were some way to…to create a world that would not need war, or create it. Would you support such a world, Kakashi? Would you help me in creating one?"

"The second you figure out how to do so, you let me know. I'd be very, very interested in helping to create such a world."

"It wouldn't be easy. There would be many necessary sacrifices."

Kakashi let out a forced laugh. "You act like this is something you already have figured out. Are you being serious?"

"Well...the scouts are bound to show up soon. I'll cover the other cliff on the other side of the defile. Stay sharp." He shunshined away, leaving his partner wondering at his words- but not for long.

The two of them had used the chameleon jutsu to blend flawlessly in with the white stone cliffs. A team of three ANBU walked unknowingly toward Kakashi, talking casually about their sex lives. Once they were within range, he jumped out, putting the first to sleep with his sharingan, while two shadow clones dragged the others' bodies under the earth so that only their heads were above ground. He quickly broke their necks and sealed the third one away in a scroll to be brought back to Ibiki Morino at the Torture and Interrogation Department of Konoha ANBU.

Meanwhile, he noticed Obito had made quick work of a three-man team of his own. It wasn't much longer before he saw the main body coming with their supplies.

Black Rain had used a camouflage jutsu of their own, followed by Itachi using a very powerful area genjutsu to blanket their presence further. They stood in the center of the valley, patiently waiting for the last man in the train to pass the border of the trap. It took much longer than expected, thanks to the many more people. The number of times an enemy passed inches in front of them were too many to count. Finally, after dozens of agonizing minutes, and not a minute too soon, since the front end of the train was nearly out of the defile, Obito gave them the signal to launch the attack.

Naruto made the ram seal: "**Fuin: Four Corners Indestructible Barrier!**" The Iwa soldiers saw a powerful green seal in the shape of a long rectangle form around them. Cries announcing an ambush were completely fruitless. The Namikaze wasted no time in forming three orange, ethereal tails behind him and literally ripping the enemy forces to shreds- they were totally helpless. Meanwhile, two massive, ethereal warriors, one red and one green, emerged around Itachi and Shisui, respectively. The ultimate defense of the Susano'o and the violent lethality of the Totsuka Blade and Kokiga Drill laid utter waste to the Iwa forces, while the chakra cloak of Naruto and his unbelievable speed and power left him unhittable- two immovable walls and an unstoppable force.

Screams of horror pierced the air as thousands of soldiers realized they would not be leaving that valley alive, watching their beloved comrades' heads being forcefully separated from their bodies by a terrible, feral man-beast, sliced in half by a giant sword, and bloodied by a giant drill. The ones at the ends of the train were throwing every offensive jutsu they had at the barrier, only to find it completely unbreakable. Naruto signaled his team to shunshin to one end of the barrier and face the thousands still remaining.

Naruto raised his hand above his hand. A rasengan began forming on it- but no usual one. He had succeeded in adding a wind element to it, but this wind was black, the chakra inside it was so dense and powerful and it spun at a blinding speed.

_The ancient Namikaze were legendary Futon manipulators, _he remembered Jiraiya telling him. _You, gaki, have received their naturally incredible powers in wind manipulation, as well as the legendary water manipulation of the Uzumaki. You're the best these clans have to offer. Will you rise to that legacy? _

"Damn right I will," he muttered to himself as the Dark Rasenshuriken completed. "Itachi! Shisui! It's ready!" Two nods let him know they were as well.

"Now! **Collaboration Jutsu: Black Hellfire Inspired Windmill!**" Naruto threw his jutsu. Before it moved five feet, Shisui had added his Amaterasu and Itachi his black Chidori. The electric, burning and extremely sharp mass of utter destruction flew through the thousands trapped in that narrow defile, and it stretched across the entire width of it, opening scars in the rock faces, not missing a single man. It screeched across to the other end of the barrier and exploded at the end, easily obliterating it.

And suddenly- silence. Not a soul breathed. Kakashi had his hand in front of his mouth in shock at the display of power. Even Obito was agape. He had never imagined they would become so powerful, such an incredible team. That jutsu must have been SSS rank, if such a thing could exist. No living thing could survive it, not even a kage, not even the Kyuubi itself. And these boys were _teenagers. _A more religious and frightened witness would have crossed himself.

It wasn't that all the bodies and baggage had been killed and rendered useless; it was that they had been _entirely atomized. _Scraps of paper and blood could not even have been found there; the only signs that there had been a battle at all were the malformations in the earth and rock. Just to be safe, Kakashi summoned Pakkun, who, after a brief fit of awe, confirmed that there were no other humans for miles. The Hatake rounded up his team, who weren't even out of breath or sweating, and led them back to the village in silence.

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